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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27489046">Mirrors - Damon's five</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ondieva86/pseuds/Ondieva86'>Ondieva86</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Vampire Diaries (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:14:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,800</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27489046</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ondieva86/pseuds/Ondieva86</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the parallel dimensions are exists? Bonnie and Damon four times in four different worlds plus another Damon.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bonnie Bennett/Damon Salvatore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>43</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Damon's five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone! That story is i have been wanted to write for ages. At first that was a Sasu/Naru, than went to Snarry and now already is a Bamon. So, now this is a one shot. If you intrested in this might be a multi chapter. I am working hard on my the story (The Protectors) so that is my main work. This will be slow if u want me to continue.<br/>So enjoy this short story from me:) Have a nice reading:D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <b>Mirrors</b>
  </p>
</div>Chapter 1<div class="center">
  <p>
    <b>Damon’s five</b>
  </p>
</div><i>2018. New York; 					</i><br/>Dark and Bo<p> </p>
<p>The Manhattan sky darkened over the city, which never sleeps. The stars were barely visible from the millions of neon lights that flooded the city with shops, entertainment venues, dirty motels. However, the dirty alleys between the lights and the skyscrapers, which shone brightly by the headlights of the cars, awaited those enveloped in darkness.</p>
<p>A dark figure stood on top of one of the rustic buildings in the dawntown. He watched the unworthy, mortal people from above. He was waiting for something: his tonight’s prey. The wind ruffled his short, raven-black hair, from which at times a strand fell into his forehead. His striking, symmetrical features, nicely arched mouth, and beautifully bright, crystal-clear, blue eyes made his appearance irresistibly attractive. The man was dressed in black from head to toe, so he almost completely blended into his surroundings.</p>
<p>He watched intently a young pretty woman, tired of working walking home from work. The knocks of her high-heeled sandals echoed sharply within the walls of the quiet alley. She was scared, excited. The man at the top of the house could clearly hear her fierce heartbeat and almost in his mouth felt the taste of the delicate, warm blood that had become sweet from adrenaline. The hunger erupted in him for a faint moment, but he immediately calmed him down. His tooth hadn’t ache for that woman. </p>
<p>A little while, a man appeared behind the woman. His body, stinking of sweat, burned with fever. Along the walls, he slid softly after the young beauty. The lowest of humanity, a rapist. The vampire was waiting for him. Accompanied by a satisfied smirk, he jumped off the roof of the building. The booty had no chance of escaping. He pressed the worm against the wall with lightning speed, drilling the glowing blue eyes into his victim's watery, ugly brown iris. His pupils dilated and then narrowed rapidly. He compelled.</p>
<p>"Tell me, my dear friend! What wind brought you to this countryside at such a late hour?” As he spoke, he almost drilled his face into the other. He pulled his mouth to a devilish smile as he waited for an answer.</p>
<p>"I wanted to catch the bitch," he said in an expressionless voice. He had to tell the truth; he just couldn't do anything else. He was under enhancement.</p>
<p>Damon snapped his tongue and shook his head.</p>
<p>“Well, well, well! Answer me!” He compelled again. “What did you want to do with her?”</p>
<p>“I wanted to fuck her and then strangle her.”</p>
<p>Damon's eyes turned deep red, and the veins around were saturated with blood.</p>
<p>“Wrong answer!” He said darkly, then dug his long, pointed fangs out of his mouth into the serial killer's neck.</p>
<p>An intoxicating feeling gripped him as human blood reached his mouth. His hunger began to subside, but he wanted more. He wanted to suck this filth dry, who had been slowly followed by the band for two months. Even that vampires are monsters?</p>
<p>„Dark!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The sharp voice tore him out of the ecstasy of bloodshed. The sound that was the most beautiful music to Damon's ears. He knew all the versions. What when she is angry, when she is nervous, when she whispers his name veiled with lust. A good shiver ran down his spine, and that sound alone was enough to tighten his groin. </p>
<p>He turned to the side and looked at his pair. She was simply beautiful. From the darkness, her skin looked quite chocolate brown, though Damon knew it was actually a blend of golden honey and caramel. Her green eyes glowed like emeralds on her round face, but if the sun hit her at the right angle, it was as if brown dots were dancing in her iris. She wore her long, straight, black hair in a ponytail on top of her head, but it still reached her waist.</p>
<p>Standing by him a few steps away was this wonderful creature, the love of Damon’s life, with whom he has been here for 5 years and has been bearing his name for two years now: Bonnie Bennett-Salvatore. He never wins to give thanks to the universe for putting this woman in his path. The Bennett witch undertook nothing less for him than eternal existence. In the context of a very painful and complicated ritual, she became immortal to be with the man she loved forever and ever. She became a hybrid: half vampire, half witch. The elder Salvatore says she is the most dangerous creature in their world.</p>
<p>Bonnie smiled with her hands on her hips at the man she had loved all her life. The vampire found her on the street at the age of ten when he went to Mystic Falls to visit his brother. Damon has taken care of her ever since. She couldn’t tell what the moment was when they fell in love with each other, but at times she felt like they had always belonged together. The immortality she pledged was not a sacrifice for her. It prefer only the certainty that they will be together forever. The beauty fail of the thing is that Bonnie also had to drink human blood to stay alive.</p>
<p>Damon threw his victim to the ground, then smiled broadly at his wife.</p>
<p>“Aren't you asking for a sip?” He asked teasingly</p>
<p>Bonnie slowly stepped closer.</p>
<p>“You know I don't drink from humans.” She was already quite close to her husband. “But…”</p>
<p>She held out her hand and then flicked into the air. Damon slammed against the wall before Bonnie stood tightly in front of him, placing her palm on her husband's chest and pressing her body against the other. She closed her lashes, then slowly swallowed the blood from her partner's mouth with her tongue, then they kissed each other passionately.</p>
<p>Their whole bodies burned with fever. Damon's hands immediately fell under the black top, then slid down to the woman's butt with gentle movements. He pulled Bonnie close enough to make the other feel his excitement. Meanwhile, the witch tilted her head back in surrender to allow the other to take possession of her neck. Damon first breathed tiny kisses on the delicate skin, then Bonnie leaned over the man's neck as well, then they bit into each other.</p>
<p>It was their little game. The blood distribution drew them into complete ecstasy. Their bodies were overwhelmed by the total euphoria. When they finally parted, they kissed again, so not a drop was wasted.</p>
<p>“I love it when you greet me that way Bo!” Damon told her, smiling seductively at his wife.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bonnie looked lovingly into her husband's beautiful blue eyes. </p>
<p>“I love you, Dark!” She whispered. </p>
<p>“Me too, Bo!” He replied, then kissed his wife again.</p>
<p>As much as they longed for each other at that moment, they now had an urgent thing. After they parted, Bonnie took a small step back, then looked at Damon with a serious face.</p>
<p>“Bon called!” She said. “We need to go back to Mystic Falls urgently!”</p>
<p>Damon pursed his lips nervously, then nodded. He looked sideways at the half-eaten bastard.</p>
<p>“What about him?” He asked with intense disgust in his voice.</p>
<p>“Give him your blood! Compel him to don't move, then call the police!”</p>
<p>“So the usual procedure.”</p>
<p>The vampire stepped to the laying figure, bit his wrist, and held it to the man's mouth. He did as Bo said. After they were done, he called the investigate office he ran. He told Alaric what had just happened, then let him take over the office from him for a while because they had to visit his brother and his family. Then, with Bo hand in hand, they disappeared into the darkness of the night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>2018. Mystic Falls; 					                                                                                                                                                                        Hollyberry and D.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Disaster area. This is how the kitchen was best described when Bonnie Salvatore cooked. Although it didn’t happen many times and it had to be a very special occasion for her husband to give her the wooden spoon, now they were having an Italian evening and Bonnie undertook to make D. and Stefan’s favorite. Although she wouldn't have done it. The ingredients for the homemade spaghetti lay in disarray on the kitchen counter and on the island that separated the kitchen from the living room. Eggshells and a bag of flour tossed aside, the bowl in which he mixed the ingredients lay somewhere under the sea of the bags. Bonnie swirled the dough with one hand as she kneaded the meatballs, trying to keep an eye on what was going on in the living room.</p>
<p>The situation there was not much better either. Damon run over angrily through the room between the toys left by their two adopted children, Dave and Elizabeth. He growled angrily under his breath, then shouted loudly as he just stepped on a Lego piece.</p>
<p>“Shielaaa!” Shouted the raven-haired man. "Call them here immediately, or I'll strangle them both!"</p>
<p>“D.!” Bonnie shouted disapprovingly from the kitchen.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Damon flashed his wife his “hundred-watt” smile, then sent a flying kiss to the woman.</p>
<p>“You know I love them, Berry.”</p>
<p>Bonnie just shook her head, but meanwhile she made her mouth smile. Her shoulder-length, slightly wavy hair clung to her sweaty face from the water vapor rising from the pots, while the training dress she wore for home was already full of food scraps, but Damon still saw her beautiful.</p>
<p>From the courtyard, a woman in her mid-fifties stepped through the back door of the house, which was connected to the kitchen. Her face remained beautiful despite the tiny wrinkles, her proud posture visible on her gait, her skin color only a shade lighter than Bonnie's golden-brown tone, but her eyes glowed as green as her granddaughter's.</p>
<p>Shiela Bennett was the matriarch of the Salvatore family, as Damon often called her behind her. She loved her granddaughter and loved Damon very much. Many times she gave thanks to fate for the two of them to eventually find each other. She struggled a lot for them because it wasn’t easy for them to get over the fact that it was practically Damon and Stefan who raised Bonnie when she lost her parents at the age of two. The brothers took the little girl by their name, so practically when Damon and Bonnie got married, the witch didn’t even have to change her name.</p>
<p>When Sheila saw the kitchen and the living room, she raised her eyebrows only slightly, jerked her shoulder, then went into the foyer from the living room, from where she yelled at the bottom of the stairs leading up.</p>
<p>“Liz and Dave! Come down immediately! Your dad is very angry.”</p>
<p>From the floor, there was a pounding of tiny legs, and then, waiting for a while, two five-years-old raced into the living room in a breeze. The little girl had waist-length, straight-stranded brown hair, large chocolate brown eyes, and tiny mouths. When she grows up, she will look like Katherine Pierce, who turned the Salvatore brothers into vampires about a hundred and sixty years ago. And her twin brother will be a spit-out copy of Stefan. The two children were the last doppelganger of Silus and Amara, but they still meant the world to Damon and Bonnie.</p>
<p>Both kids obediently, with innocent faces, appeared in front of their dad, flashing their most beautiful smiles. Damon's anger immediately subsided, though he kept the strict parent's expression on his face. </p>
<p>He put his fist on his hips, frowned, and pressed his mouth thinly.</p>
<p>“Collect your toys immediately!” Damon instructed them sternly. “Otherwise, there’s no dinner and, worst of all,” he leaned quite close to his children here, then whispered ominously into their faces, “there won’t be a bedtime story either.</p>
<p>The children nodded obediently.</p>
<p>“Yes, Dad!” They shouted in unison.</p>
<p>Damon grinned contentedly, then sighed and slammed himself down onto the couch, where Shiela was already watching the children comfortably with her legs crossed as they packed their toys into place.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Bonnie was slowly getting to the end of dinner. She was very hopeful that everyone would like the food, though she feared that her sister-in-law, Caroline, would criticize her culinary science. Still, she couldn't wait to host the other Salvatore family. Although they did not live far apart due to the activities related to the Salvatore Boarding School, they rarely had the opportunity to relax and have a good joyful evening. She smiled and thought about how good it would be to have a family together.</p>
<p>Suddenly everything darkened in front of Bonnie. Her eyeballs got stuck and only the whites of her eyes were visible. She heard her own voice in her head and saw herself cast a spell while sitting on a floor with her eyes closed. She nearly fell, but her husband immediately stood behind her and caught her.</p>
<p>“Hollyberry, what happened?” Damon asked desperately. “Shiela!” He shouted. “Please come here quickly!”</p>
<p>She didn't get up from the couch in a hurry. She could feel the waves of magic that Bonnie had emitted from herself too, and she felt no danger, but she knew his son-in-law. Damon tended to overdramatize the situation a bit.</p>
<p>When she reached them, she saw that Bonnie had fallen into a trance. Damon looked at his wife's face in horror, though this wasn't the first time he'd seen her in that condition. It couldn't take more than a minute and a half, but the worst things raced through the elder Salvatore's mind until Bonnie finally opened her eyes. By then, the children had gathered around their mother. She cleared her throat and then spoke.</p>
<p>“Bon called!”</p>
<p>Damon grimaced, while Shiela sighed with relief.</p>
<p>“Again?” Damon asked boredly.</p>
<p>"We have to go to the Salvatore crypt tomorrow night!"</p>
<p>Bonnie stood up as she spoke. She leaned on the kitchen island counter, trying to regain her balance. After she was stable enough, she looked her husband seriously in the eye.</p>
<p>“They found another one!”</p>
<p>A sarcastic, slightly mocking half-smile appeared on Damon's face that had become his trademark over the years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	***</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>2018. Mystic Falls, The Salvatore Boarding School; 		                                                                                                                                         Professor and Little Bird</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Salvatore Boarding School ensemble’s rustic building complex occupied a vast area at the end of Old Miller Road. The main building was designed by Damon and Stefan Salvatore, and the smaller structures were added during the school’s more than 100-year existence. Young people who had magical abilities, activated their werewolf gene, or became vampires could come here.</p>
<p>The school was founded by the two youngest members of the Italian immigrant family, not long after they became vampires “courtesy” of Katherine Pierce. The elder, Damon, somehow wanted to protect his brother from the killer's instincts, so he asked for help from the only witch he knew. She was willing to help him. A special alliance formed between the Bennett and Salvatore families. Thanks to this, the two brothers managed to find their mother, and for now, the whole area has been owned by the Salvatore family for one hundred and twenty years. To make it striking that the owners do not grow old, they always appoint a mortal to administer the school. The current director, Dr. Alaric Saltzman, is a professional vampire hunter and history professor who happened to be a former roommate of Damon Salvatore back in his college years.</p>
<p>Well, in 180 years of Damon’s life, he has amassed more than ten diplomas and boasts quite a few academic degrees. He holds doctorates in theoretical physics, including cosmology theory, applied and theoretical mathematics, forensic anthropology, and chemistry. His younger brother, on the other hand, was more attracted to the arts. He had a great sense of writing and had already published several books under his pseudonym. He graduated from literature several times, in different decades.</p>
<p>Damon and Stefan were vampires. Dr. Salvatore refrained eating from the innocents. He used his newly acquired knowledge of molecular biology to trigger human blood in some way, but so far it has not been successful. Stefan was fed animal blood, but his brother wasn't really passionate about the idea.</p>
<p>Damon was now watching intently from the cathedral of one of the spacious, well-lit classrooms as a descendant of Emily Bennett, performing an intricate spell. She was beautiful, at least Damon had always seen her since he literally bumped into sixteen-year-old Bonnie Bennett in the school hallway. Because of it, he broke his own rule: fell in love with a mortal, plus with a witch.</p>
<p>The older Salvatore brother, after becoming a vampire, did not want to be deeply attached to a human he could lose. He felt too deep to survive the death of a human who gets so close to him that he would receive her in his bed. Hence, he dealt only and exclusively with vampires. Neither seemed like a lasting relationship. After his turn, he tried with Katherine for a while, but it soon turned out that the woman was a selfish slut and preferred to drive to his brother. Then came Alexandra Branston, but chemistry didn't work with her, and then he stumbled upon one of the original vampires, Rebekah Mikaelson, but she was too violent to Damon's taste. So, he didn’t have too much luck in love. Then came Bonnie. No matter how hard he tried to fight his feelings, sooner or later he had to give up his resistance.</p>
<p>Bonnie was like a little bird when she came to them. Outspoken, forever opposite, engrossed in everything, independent and extremely stubborn. She wasn't really tied to the rules. There was a robin tattooed above her navel. Among other things, this was due to the nickname Damon gave him: Little Bird.</p>
<p>The Bennett witch was now sitting with her eyes closed in front of the cathedral in the middle of a circle of salt scattered with candles. She was wearing a body-hugging, black, sleeveless top ending above her navel, on which she wore a mauve-colored blouse made of thin fabric. Her graceful legs were covered in beet-stemmed, dark blue jeans. Behind her at the desks, the principal, Stefan and his wife, Caroline Forbes, waited to find out what the outcome of the spell would be.</p>
<p>The wind rose in the room and began to swirl around Bonnie. Her long black, straight hair fluttered around her. Damon came close to her. His worried look wandered to the vial hanging around her neck. There was his own blood in it. Engagement gift. When the time comes, the witch will turn, but Damon won’t let her until she gets old. Vampire blood has the ability to reverse aging somewhat, so they had nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>The witch's eyes suddenly opened. She looked at her fiancé with a loving smile, who reciprocated, then pressed a running kiss to his bride's mouth.</p>
<p>“So?” He asked expectantly.</p>
<p>Bonnie turned to the others and grinned mischievously at them.</p>
<p>"Well, Professor," she turned to Damon again. “We'll get to know another alter ego soon. Bon expects our presence.”</p>
<p>Caroline rolled her eyes from one of the benches, Stefan trying to stifle her grin while Alaric clapped her palms.</p>
<p>“Another Damon Salvatore?” The blonde vampire despised. “I'd rather go and have a drink.”</p>
<p>Damon looked after her with a grin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>2018. Mystic Falls, The Salvatore Boarding School;			                                                                                                                                                       Bon and Damon</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Damon Salvatore stared at himself with his arms folded. His newly (and extremely unexpectedly) emerging alter ego lay unconscious on a wide double bed in one of the dormitories of the boarding school. Damon leaned closer to him, but didn't touch his body. He sniffed around, listening to his heart pounding steadily and loudly, then straightening his head. He scratched his chin anxiously, trying to figure out what the problem might be.</p>
<p>For the past few years, the Bonnies and Damons have alternately “arrived” into their world through the Salvatore family crypt. When Professor and Little Bird showed up, they didn’t even know what to do. Luckily, Damon’s clever alter ego immediately came up with a plethora of answers and theories in which the older Salvatore’s head ached completely. It was one of the strangest experiences of his life as he watched himself all the way as he scribbled equations on a piece of paper and then solved them in the blink of an eye.</p>
<p>Fortunately, his wife was a recovering woman. Bonnie Bennett - Salvatore immediately mingled with the other Bonnie, who looked a little younger, while Damon and his brother and his sister-in-law also executed two bottles of bourbon in a row. Lily Salvatore almost had a heart attack when she saw them, but Damon's stepfather, Enzo St. John, didn't react any differently.</p>
<p>After a while, a usable theory was born: parallel dimensions, and the gateway could be somewhere in the woods around the school, more precisely at the entrance to the Salvatore crypt. The portal was probably opened by one of Professor’s experiments and is kept open by a structure created by Little Bird. It didn’t take long and the two hurricanes, D. and Hollyberry, soon appeared. Damon had to giggle no matter how many times he remembered the couple. D. was simply not normal. It always seemed he was a little disintegrated, and sometimes too hilarious, which could be annoying. And Hollyberry treated it like a typical mother chicken.</p>
<p>It turned out very quickly that the gateway was kept open by Bon’s magic, which needed to be regulated. The structure of Little Bird could bring only them through, but Hollyberry and D., thanks to the interplay of coincidences, could bring them into their world.</p>
<p>Then the emo team, Dark and Bo, appeared. They were dark figures, but it soon became clear that the grim exterior covered ordinary souls. They were side by side all the time, and they didn't let go of the other for a minute. Their scanning gaze was constantly searching for danger, as if something could hurt them at any moment.</p>
<p>The appearance of their alter egos was usually accidental. Except for Bo and Dark. Bon were already consciously searching for the parallel worlds with the help of a spell created by Little Bird, Hollyberry, and her.</p>
<p>Damon Salvatore, in front of him, was an unexpected surprise. Kai and Bon were just practicing. His wife’s psycho-kinetic abilities intensified as the pregnancy progressed, and Malachai, being the syphoning witch, was able to adequately control the energies that might be released.</p>
<p>They were just practicing an intricate spell when Bon felt the portal open, but instead of one of their well-known alter egos popping up, this newer Damon appeared.</p>
<p>They knew right away that something was wrong around the guy. As he arrived and saw Kai, in almost seconds, his shock turned to hatred and he immediately rushed at the man. Bonnie had to sedate him because they were simply unable to calm him down.</p>
<p>Yet Kai was liked by all of them. The Gemini coven cursed out him when they realized the child was a syphoning witch. He was alone on the street for years when Damon found him and took him to the school. There he was taught one thing and another, and by a wonderful coincidence he was able to reunite with his sister, Jo, who also practiced magic within these walls. The curse of Gemini, the unification of twins between the ages of twenty-two, fortunately avoided them because several twin couples were born within the coven who could take the burden from them. A kind of strange father-son relationship developed between Kai and Damon, so Elder Salvatore felt obligated to protect him.</p>
<p>Then this Damon Salvatore was a human. This raises further questions. What devilish magic did this to him? What did you have to go through to choose human life? The cure was part of all four worlds. The story of Silus and Amara seems to have been the same everywhere, but with different outcomes. What is certain, however, is that it was not safe to access in any of the worlds, or rather, it was not worth the risk. No one but D and Hollyberry can know this better.</p>
<p>But what worried Damon the most was that this alter ego had entered their world without Bonnie Bennett, and it had never happened before. The fact that Damon Salvatore and Bonnie Bennett are together, in the words of Professor, was a constant among the parallel dimensions. But, then where can the other half of this Damon be?</p>
<p>Damon suddenly smelled his wife. Immediately a pleasant shiver ran down his spine, then he felt the woman's gentle touch on his shoulder and turned to her. Even before the woman could say anything, the vampire kissed her passionately, then gently stroked her grown-up belly. Bon Salvatore was already in eighth month. There are always loopholes in magic. Thanks to a loophole like this, Bonnie also got pregnant, and Damon won’t let her turn until she gave birth to a dozen children, but at least three.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“How's he?” Bon asked. She looked at her husband's face with a worried face.</p>
<p>“Knocked out for now, but fine.”</p>
<p>Bonnie now stroked Damon's face.</p>
<p>“What worries you so much?” The witch asked again.</p>
<p>Damon pulled his wife even closer to him, then sighed a lot.</p>
<p>"Except he almost killed Kai and I didn't see a Bonnie Bennett next to him who lying in front of us is a human. I wonder what could have happened.”</p>
<p>Bon bit her lower lip, then thoughtfully watched the man lying on the bed with a peaceful face for a few seconds.</p>
<p>"It's time to wake him up," she sighed.</p>
<p>The Bennett witch sat gently on the edge of the bed. She moved a little awkwardly because of her big belly, but she could still fit there. She ran her hand over his beautiful face (as if it had been carved by angels), then murmured softly a spell. When she finished, the new Damon slowly began to open his eyes. He leaned heavily on his elbow, finally looking at the witch still a little dazedly.</p>
<p>“Bon-Bon? How do you get here?” He asked hoarsely. “Not that I'm not happy for you, in fact. This may be the best part of the day, but…”</p>
<p>Then he looked around better. He stared with his mouth open, then almost fainted again when he saw himself seeing him with wide grin.</p>
<p>“Bon-Bon? I like this! It seems you also have a Bonnie.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Bon-Bon and Old Man</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hello everyone:) I returned. First of all, thank you for the support:) It means a lot to me. I decided continuing this story. There are so many possibilities in it. I didnt want to drop this to the trash. I wont update so often this fic, because i have another one which is the prior, but after the break i wanted to return with the 2nd chapter of this story.<br/>I hope you will enjoy this. And please if you will have time, or want to support me further, i will be glad if you write me some letters as form of comment:) Thanks you guys again:) Have a nice read:D</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How did Damon go to the other world? Bonnie is in London and Damon is in Mystic Falls at Stefan's grave. Bonnie are ready for let Enzo go and Damon hates to being human and not so happy being with Elena.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 2</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <b>Bon-Bon and Old Man</b>
  </p>
</div>2018. London; England<p>Bonnie Bennett was slowly for a year to leave Mystic Falls behind. She promised Enzo that she would live her life, and she did so. She wanted to stay away from the place that caused her the most grief.</p><p>During that one year, she toured half the world while learning a lot about magic and her own heritage. In the Bohemian Quarter in Paris, she met witches who were able to predict the future. In the hidden alleys of Athens, she came across warlocks practicing ancient magic, while in the Scottish Highlands she came into contact with ghosts and magical creatures of bygone eras. She experienced pure magic; what it means that witches are the keepers of the balance of nature.<br/>
The magical creatures must be protected, taught, because they are also part of the cycle. Nature always strives for balance, but that doesn’t mean vampires and werewolves aren’t part of it. She saw communities where these three races fit side by side in peace and harmony, helping those in need. But there are few, hidden from the eyes of the world.</p><p>Bonnie was now ready to do a great deed. She still didn't feel prepared for it, but she had to do it. It has been a while since she feels that the plane she has created has begun to suck in. She is stuck between two worlds. She was neither alive nor dead. If she doesn’t eliminate the place where she sent Enzo’s soul to, she will soon be lost in it. Sooner rather than later. She must free the man's soul before he even pulls Bonnie with him.</p><p>She hoped the vampire, with whom they had planned their future together for a year (which would not have lasted long, given that Bonnie would never give up being a witch for immortality), would find the coveted peace. Some of her still wanted to join him, she still felt she had a place next to Enzo, but she couldn’t because something (someone) always pulled her back. He did not leave her peace, nor did she expect him to.</p><p>And nowadays, she found herself missing her home. She misses Caroline’s beading laugh, the way she always wants to keep everything in order. She missed Alaric, who with his wisdom could always steer them in the right direction. She missed Matt, the responsible sheriff who did everything he could to protect the city that was home to them all.</p><p>But the one she missed the most is her best friend, Damon ‘I became a human and I hate it’ Salvatore. She noticed surprisingly that she was looking forward to finally dropping couple of shots at the Grill in memory of the old days, and then anecdoting by morning who had done what in the past year. Not that Bonnie couldn't know about almost everything but be with the other person in flesh other than talking on the phone.</p><p>But the one she didn't miss at all is Elena. She woke her up to finally get rid of her. She left her home because she didn’t want to be near her childhood friend for a long time. She sacrificed everything on the altar of Gilberts. She was willing to throw her own life for them, and Bonnie was tired of being the sacrificial lamb. Elena, though she became human, was still a doppelganger. She attracted trouble like a magnet to the metal, and the Bennett witch no longer wanted to serve as a living shield for her.</p><p>She wasn’t angry at her, she wasn’t blaming her, she just wanted to close this stage of her life. Damon understood that. He didn't even force it. They talked little about Elena, seldom mentioned the relationship between the two of them, and Bonnie was especially grateful to him for that. From a dropped comment, however, it could be concluded that Mystic Falls’ number one dream couple is not cloudlessly happy.</p><p>Laughing, Bonnie thought about how hard it could be to live with Damon. The man was a maniac and obsessively clung to his habits. (For four months, the same routine was every day.) Elena, on the other hand, loved spontaneity, was agile, and often insane. That's why she ever fell in love with the older Salvatore. She suspected the man had sides that the Gilbert girl didn't know yet. But that's their problems from now on, not Bonnie's. She no longer wanted to put anyone's messy life in order. It was enough to finally gather her own.</p><p>Now she was sipping her cappuccino on the terrace of a London cafe. She held a book in her hand. The sheet in front of her she had already run about six times because her gaze kept wandering to the turmoil around her. London was noisy, chaotic, full of people and beautiful. Slowly Bing Ben hits five, ships float gently rocking up the Thames, and the London Eye was crowded with tourists. Bonnie had seen everything. As Damon asked, she took some idiot photos with the guards in front of Buckingham Palace, captured herself in front of the Tower, and then took a few photos in Madame Tussout’s panopticon with Béla Lugosi, just for fun.</p><p>Her last voyage led to the port of Dover. She wanted to scatter Enzo's ashes from the white rocks. She has already looked out for a tourist-free place where she can get into with some magical tricks. There she will perform the ceremony and then head to Virginia. She didn't know where she wanted to settle yet. For now, she was vacillating whether to go back to Whitmore or work for Alaric at the Salvatore Boarding School. On the one hand, she could follow in the footsteps of her grandmother, on the other hand, she could help young people like her once was.</p><p>Big Ben hit the five with a loud congress, and at the same moment, Bonnie's phone rang. She didn't even have to look at the display. She knew who was calling. Ever since she embarked on this great journey, every day, at the same time, Damon had called her. Once in the morning, (<i>‘It’s best to wake up to my voice, Bon-Bon.’</i>) And once in the afternoon at five (<i>‘Just to be sure, you weren’t kidnapped and taken to Thailand as sex slaves.’</i>). Wherever she went, these two times were fixed. Damon adjusted the calls to the time zones. It was just two o'clock in Mystic Falls now.</p><p>Bonnie waited for half a second, then picked up the phone with a smile.</p><p>“Hello, Old Man!”</p><p>“Oh, Bon-Bon! I told you that nicknames are my business!”</p><p>“Ha! Admit it is a very apt one! How much are you, 180? Old and human. You see? Old man.”</p><p>Bonnie grinned broadly as she imagined Damon rolling his eyes.</p><p>“When are you coming home?” He asked.</p><p>Bonnie sighed wearily. It's always the same question.</p><p>“You don't have to wait long now. If all goes well, I’ll arrive in Washington on tomorrow’s flight, and from there I’ll be in Mystic Falls in a few hours by car.”</p><p>“Uhm. Okay! Do you want me to tell Caroline?”</p><p>The complicity hidden behind the question suggested a welcome party. Such Caroline Forbes kind. </p><p>“No! Be surprised.”</p><p>“You are chicken, Bon-Bon! Are you afraid Caroline will organize a parade of the century for your return? I should be more afraid of that. I'll be the one to carry the beverage cartons. And now that I’m human, I’ve realized that things have weight, not just mass.”</p><p>Bonnie felt the weight of guilt on her chest. When she left, she left everyone behind. She left alone the two people who were the most important to her in the world. They were left alone with their grief, as was she. Bonnie lamented Stefan as much as she lamented Enzo. Whatever the vampire, free of human emotions, did to her, the younger Salvatore did not deserve death or the departure of his loved ones. But Bonnie needed space and time to process everything that had happened to them. She had to breathe freely for a bit because she felt like she was drowning. If there had only been three of them, Damon, Caroline and Bonnie, she might have stayed. But Elena was there among them as a living memento of all the horror that happened to them. So she left. </p><p>“How is she?” Bonnie finally asked.</p><p>There was silence at the other end of the line for a few seconds, then Bonnie heard Damon sigh.</p><p>“She's coping. It managed to stop her from turning off and she’s much better now. I visit her and the twins every day. She looks great, but you know Caroline.”</p><p>Bonnie knew the blonde vampire very well. If the world turned out of itself tomorrow, it would be Caroline who would organize rescue teams to search for survivors and not even her makeup would smear. It was Caroline who was best able to play that everything was all right.</p><p>“And you?”</p><p>Long silence. Bonnie knew there was nothing easier for Damon than for his sister-in-law. She only saw Damon sobbing once on the day of Stefan's funeral. His grief was deeper than anyone. Many times, he just stared blankly at himself in the Grill when he thought no one could see him. For 150 years, Damon had no one but his brother, and he no longer hoped to see him again. There was a guilt in his human soul that no one could understand. Bonnie didn't even try. In the older Salvatore, the hunger that suppressed all other human emotions was gone, he had nothing to cling to, and based on what Bonnie heard, Elena couldn't help him much.</p><p>Damon broke the silence.</p><p>“I'm fine. My brother is still dead, I can barely see the love of my life and I am still a miserable human, but I am trying to rise above my worries and move on.”</p><p>Bonnie chuckled softly.</p><p>“How many self-help books have you read?”</p><p>“Let's see! Three from Gary Chapman. The guy is very popular. Turns out I have a love language.”</p><p>“What have you?”</p><p>“My language of love, Bon-Bon.” He spoke as usual with young children; slowly articulating the words. “The way I express my love for others.”</p><p>“Aww. That’s the sarcasm.”</p><p>Damon snorted.</p><p>“No. But for being so hard-hearted, I won’t tell you what it is.”</p><p>"Little favors," the witch said with a laugh.</p><p>She also read the book a few years ago, just out of curiosity, but it was good to tease her friend.</p><p>"Yes," Damon replied in surprise. “How did you know?”</p><p>Bonnie shook her head as she smiled in front of her.</p><p>"We lived together, don't you remember?"</p><p>There was a genuine laugh from the other end of the line.</p><p>“The good old times. You, me, my pancakes and Kevin Costner.”</p><p>"And Kai, the ascendant and your heir, whine about how much you want to go back to Elena."</p><p> </p><p>Silence again. Bonnie sighed heavily. Memories what she didn't like to recall. They were too painful. Part of them because, without any reasonable explanation, Bonnie really got to love Damon there. There was no way to resist him, especially when he was really, heartily kind to her. Then the whole casing burst and Bonnie almost went mad in loneliness. Only memories of shared experiences kept her alive. </p><p>Bonnie let out a short sigh, but then Damon's sad, deep voice finally broke the silence again. </p><p>“I miss you. A little bit. A little bit better than it should be.”</p><p>And it was here again. The awkward confessions, Damon’s attacks of honesty, their glances at each other that only made the relationship between the two of them even more complicated. It was a miracle at the beginning that the two of them were in a talking relationship with each other. There was a time when they wanted to kill each other and then they made an alliance. A silent pact that they are willing to work together for Elena’s sake. Bonnie saw something in him. Something that went beyond the Gilbert girl's romantic ideas about the vampire’s intentions. Something much deeper that she hadn't been able to put into words since.</p><p>Then they died together. The world collapsed around them, and they stood there, holding each other's hands, waiting for redemptive destruction. Then everything changed and that change didn’t just happen in the witch. The tension between the two of them sometimes became unbearable, and other times it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world when they were together.</p><p>Damon saved her, he would have been willing to give up anything for her, even Elena, and that letter was… Like a shitty love confession. She makes him face a future without Elena? She get the best out of him, just like Elena did? These were words Bonnie couldn't put anywhere. She didn't know how to feel or react. Damon waited for his love, Bonnie had Enzo there. Yet what the hell should she have done? And the million-dollar question: If they’re not each other’s lovers, then what the hell do they mean to each other? Best friends, but then why does she sometimes feel like there’s so much more to it than it is now. What can it mean to be “better than it should be?"</p><p>Countless questions had swirled in Bonnie, which she had wanted to ask Damon for a very long time, but instead, as always, she tended to let go of distracting thoughts.</p><p>"I always knew I was irresistible," Bonnie tried to ease the mood.</p><p>A soft sigh came from the far end of the line.</p><p>“I know.” The man's voice sounded much lighter. "And how's my favorite little witch?"</p><p>“Fine!”</p><p>Bonnie was surprised at how naturally the words came to her mouth. It was really good. Ever since she decided to let go of Enzo and eliminate the world created by her mind, she had felt much lighter. She felt some guilt about it, but it had more to do with knowing full well that the romance between her and the British vampire would have ended sooner or later anyway. Their relationship was born out of their special situation, and the fact that it was once someone puts her first and not Elena. But she had never gotten as close to Enzo as Damon, and that worried her more than that she had to let him go. On the one hand, it was completely natural. Damon had known her for a long time, they died together, they went through a lot of things together, not to mention how such a good team they formed. In contrast, there was something about Enzo that had always bothered Bonnie. Enzo easily overcame people. His love wasn’t sincere, it wasn’t for her, just the fact that someone was finally accepting him, and that’s why Bonnie could never trust him completely as she should.</p><p>Although she loved the British vampire, honestly and wholeheartedly, she could not have spent eternity with him. This was realized in her when she finally decided to let him go. The witch considered telling Damon, eventually deciding to be honest with her best friend.</p><p>“I'll let him go.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>There was silence.</p><p>“When?”</p><p>"Today," Bonnie sighed. “I looked out for a place at Dover.” She looked at her watch. “I'm leaving soon.”</p><p>“Are you really okay?”</p><p>“Yes. Better now. I have to do this. Enzo will be free and so I will be able to move on.”</p><p>“That's right. I had some concern that your suicidal tendencies would take over you and you would do something big stupid.”</p><p>Bonnie pissed off. Suicidal tendency?</p><p>“What were you thinking? What suicidal tendencies are you talking about?”</p><p>Damon scoffed.</p><p>"You've used almost every opportunity in the past to die. It has succeeded a few times.”</p><p>“Oh! Screw you!”</p><p>“What now? Let me not list how many times I had to come up with a brilliant plan to pull your pretty little ass back from the afterlife.”</p><p>There was some truth in, say, that. If Damon wasn’t, she wouldn’t be sitting here now, contemplating the magnificent view of Themes.</p><p>“All right. Five points for Gryffindor. Are you happy now?”</p><p>“Aw! Gryffindor? I always thought I would be a good Slytherin.”</p><p>Bonnie laughed. They both loved Harry Potter. It was their secret, guilty pleasure.</p><p>“Seriously. Contrary to your beliefs, I have no suicidal tendencies and don’t plan to die for a good while yet.”</p><p>"I'm glad to hear that, Bon-Bon. You would have to persevere for about fifty, sixty years because Alaric is busy at school, Elena at work, and I was left here alone without a drinking buddy, so I need someone to hold my hair while crouching over the toilet.”</p><p>The witch chuckled loudly, attracting the attention of a few passers-by and those sitting on the terrace. When she noticed they were staring, she took it back from the volume, but even so, she could barely stifle her laughter.</p><p>“What happened to your famously high tolerance?”</p><p>“It’s ridiculous. Hey, I became a human!”</p><p>"They say I'll be able to drink under the table. I can’t wait!”</p><p>"Let's not run so far! I also have experience as a human being in raising glasses.”</p><p>Bonnie could have imagined that. How many glasses of bourbon need you to forget the sight of mutilated bodies lying on the battlefield?</p><p>Bonnie glanced at her watch again. She will have to leave soon if she wants to get there before sunset.</p><p>“I have to hang up, Old Man!”</p><p>“Wait! Elena's message that you could call her sometimes.”</p><p>The Bennett witch didn't know what to answer. She didn't want to talk to her. She didn't know what to tell her. Ever since Elena let the vampires into their lives, Bonnie's life has been in constant danger because of her. She lost everyone and at times felt like she would have to move away from Damon as well. None of them wanted to admit it, but their relationship was by no means as platonic as it sounded. When she would go back to Mystic Falls, she guessed she wouldn't be able to stay with the man all the time. It wouldn't be healthy. Bonnie felt guilt and anger at the same time about Elena. That's why she didn't want to talk to her. Glad the girl had woken up, but she didn't want her life to depend on Elena Gilbert's happiness again. Damon wasn’t going to give up on the girl, and there was every chance Bonnie would lose her best friend because of it. But she didn't necessarily have to tie it to the man's nose.</p><p>“All right. I'll call you as soon as I get home.”<br/>
Damon could hear something in his voice because for a few seconds there was silence in the conversation again.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. Be careful, Bon-Bon!”</p><p>“You too, Old Man!”</p><p>Bonnie took the phone from her ear and pushed it out. She sat on the patio for a while, then sipped her last leftover cappuccino, then got into her rented car and drove toward the harbor.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bonnie looked down from the top of the white cliffs of Dover to the surging body of water in the Atlantic. The wind blew very hard, almost tearing off her dress, but now it was good for the witch. She had already prepared for the spell, now she was just hoping she could summon a strong enough fire that the wind would not blow away.</p><p>She stood in the middle of a pentagram she had previously drawn into the ground. At the ends of the peaks, five strands of candles burned with a strong flame. Bonnie took out the urn containing Enzo's ashes, knelt in the middle of the pentagram, and placed the ashes in front of her. She closed her eyes and Enzo appeared in front of her.</p><p>“Hello, love.”</p><p>“Hey”</p><p>The witch's voice trembled, and in vain she decided, tears involuntarily popping out of her eyes.</p><p>"The time is here," Bonnie said, her voice still trembling.</p><p>Enzo stroked her face, but she didn't feel his touch, only the cold emptiness. This was confirmed in her determination. She can't live like this anymore.</p><p>Bonnie hugged Enzo one last time, but again she just couldn't feel his body. She cleared her throat.</p><p>“Are you ready?”</p><p>The vampire smiled and nodded.</p><p>“Before I leave, I need to know something.”</p><p>Enzo's voice was very serious. Bonnie didn't know what the extremely important thing the man wanted to know about her was. She looked at Enzo expectantly.</p><p>“Do you love him?”</p><p>Bonnie suddenly didn't know who the man was thinking, then fell for her.</p><p>“Yes, he's my best friend.”</p><p>"That's not what I meant, and you know it."</p><p>The witch sighed heavily. Once or twice the subject had already been raised between the two of them, and then the man was still alive, or rather physically present.</p><p>“Huh! We have already discussed this once. Damon is just my friend and yes, I love him as my friend.”</p><p>Enzo scoffed mockingly. Apparently, he couldn't believe what the witch had said.<br/>
“Be honest with yourself for once now! I'm not mad at you for that. The Salvatore boys are irresistible.”</p><p>Bonnie snorted.</p><p>“One of them killed you.”</p><p>“And not for the first time.”</p><p>Enzo's voice was light and kind.</p><p>“I just want you to be happy, love. There’s a good chance we’ll see each other for the last time now, and I want to leave with the awareness that your life will be complete.”</p><p>The witch was touched. Again, her determination faltered a little. She smiled.</p><p>"I promise I will live my fullest life. I will take every opportunity. I will no longer sacrifice myself for the sake of others.”</p><p> </p><p>Damon was aiming for something like that on the phone. He put it a little differently, though. Talking to the older Salvatore was sometimes like solving a puzzle. </p><p>“I am very pleased with this. But think about it!”</p><p>“I already did.”</p><p>In fact, she had thought about the situation of the two of them a good few time. She was attracted to Damon. But there was no woman in the… world who did not find the older Salvatore attractive. There was something special about him, and the bad boy covered his outer, sentient heart. Good buried deep, but sometimes it surfaced. She knew there was something between them that went a little beyond friendship, but even if she admitted that she had tender feelings for him, it wouldn’t change their situation. And it wasn't just Elena who was the problem. Bonnie feared that even if they would be together by some miracle and it turned out that their relationship still didn’t stand the test of time, she might lose a valuable friend. She didn't want to risk that. But the possibility of that didn’t exist either. Damon was with Elena and they looked happy. This also filled Bonnie with satisfaction. For sure. She was very satisfied. She was happy for them. That was okay in that way.</p><p>The witch sighed heavily. Before she started the spell, she looked deep into Enzo's eyes one last time.</p><p>"I'll always love you and I'll never forget you," she told him with a sniff.</p><p> </p><p>Enzo stroked her face again. </p><p>“Me neither. You were the best thing in my life. I already hate the lucky guy who will eventually win your heart.”</p><p>Bonnie poked him playfully.</p><p>"I don't think I'll ever find someone who can fill the void."</p><p>“Don't do this to yourself! Find someone you can love!” Enzo raised his index finger. ”Wait a minute! I know someone. An old friend of mine. He’s about as tall as me, quite good-looking, though not as much as me, and has beautiful blue eyes.”</p><p>Bonnie let out a tired sigh.</p><p>“I repeat. I will never be together with Damon.”</p><p>“I know, I know, you're just friends.” Enzo sighed. "Then it's time to say goodbye. Thank you all, Bonnie Bennett.”</p><p>The witch really cried this time. She will miss the vampire. She loved him, but she had to move on, as did the other.</p><p>“I love you!” she told him. “You have to go now! I’m gonna start the spell.”</p><p>Bonnie opened her eyes. She inhaled the scent of the ocean, letting the wind permeate her body, letting her fingers deep into the cool ground, concentrating heavily on the flames of the candles. She asked for help from the elements, drawing strength from them. She began to mutter softly the spell that amplified her psychic abilities. When she felt strong enough, she simply thought that the plane of existence she had created would disappear.</p><p>Then a shock wave started, and at the same time, Bonnie saw something. She wasn't sure if it was a vision or something else. She was a medium, as his grandmother had told her a long time ago, so sometimes it was hard to filter out what was a simple intuition or a vision from the future, and she could see people’s thoughts rather than hear them. And that also was rare.</p><p>In the vision, Bonnie knelt just as she did now, muttering a spell. But something was very wrong. The location was the Salvatore family crypt. She recognized it immediately. The gloomy room was lit by candles. The witch was holding someone's hand. They cast spells at once. The other witch's face was all too familiar to Bonnie. He was kneeling before her but Kai.<br/>
The Bennett witch's eyes immediately popped open. She had a very bad feeling.</p>
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  <p>~*~</p>
</div>After Damon hung up the phone, he decided to stay at his brother's grave for a while longer. He came out here every day and just talked. He imagined Stefan reacting to what he had to say if he was still alive. He didn’t feel like going back to the lonely apartment at all, and the boarding house, which had been converted into a school, seemed too crowded. He needed a place where he could gather his thoughts.<p>He couldn't tell when he started feeling drowned. It was as if he was trapped in a bottomless lake from which he could not escape. Nothing turned out as he planned. First, human existence really didn’t come to him. He hated it all. He thought he longed for it more than anything. With that, he would regain his innocence, but he did not feel less abusive or innocent. He didn't miss the blood at all, but everything else he did.</p><p>As a vampire, he was able to focus his heightened emotions on hunger. He drank a sachet of A negative, and everything returned to normal. As a human being, he had to live with these feelings. With mourning, the sudden onslaught of solitude, the tormentor’s guilt and nightmares, and, of course, his fear of death. At Caroline’s suggestion, he bought dozens of psychological books. Allegedly, people are using them to get over their difficult times. Elena told him to go to a professional. Damon growled. Yet to which psychiatrist could he tell that after more than a century and a half of being a vampire, he became mortal again, and that means a serious existential crisis for him? (He could no longer lie down on the highway waiting for the unfortunate person whose soul he could pour out and then eat.) Currently, the only acceptable solution was alcohol, which of course his girlfriend was not very happy about.</p><p>Stefan's loss worn him more than he thought. It hadn’t been so hard in the first few weeks, but as Bonnie left, Damon’s chest began to squeeze into a very uncomfortable feeling, loneliness and emptiness. He became more and more aware that he would never see his brother again. There will be no more adventures, no more lectures on the consequences of Damon’s bad decisions, no more drinking on the porch of the Salvatore house, etc., etc., etc. Sometimes he thought it was the punishment of the universe for stealing his brother's girlfriend. This, in turn, gave rise to another problem.</p><p>The first weeks he spent with Elena were heaven itself. He got the girl back, and Bonnie didn't have to die for that either. (Somewhere deep in his soul, he knew he would have been unable to be with Elena after Bonnie's death, even if the witch had lived a long, full life.) But as the weeks passed, the time spent together began to become pregnant for Damon. It was only the motto in the head of the exvampire that the two of them were very incompatible. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed that so far. They had vastly different habits and did not treat human existence in the same way. Damon with deep agony, Elena bursting with enthusiasm. The girl had long-term plans. To do basic medical training in Whitmore and then go to Boston to finish her studies at Harvard. That meant years.</p><p>Damon didn't know yet what he was going to do next week. Turned out that the bar didn’t fit with him and he didn’t want to teach at all. It was Stefan who could handle people. Somehow it never worked for him. He didn't even remember what he wanted to be as a child, and he hadn't found his place in the world yet. He was currently supporting himself with minor jobs. He had to work so they could pay the bills. He got a job at the Grill and Matt sometimes allowed him to help with suspicious police matters. He didn’t dare tell anyone yet, but forensics seemed very appealing to him. He loved puzzles, and so he felt he could give something back to the world. He had already picked up a subject in college. He didn't want to be a cop, but he especially liked the work of the forensics. After all, they are the ones who put the pieces of the puzzle together. He couldn't wait to tell Bonnie in person. He wondered what face his friend would cut.</p><p>They've been arguing with Elena for the last few months. He doesn't even know the time when they last slept together. Pity things sparked controversy between the two of them, such as “<i>why didn’t you take out the trash</i>”, “<i>you’ve already rolled up the toilet roof again,</i>” or the classic “<i>how can a woman be so tricky</i>”. He didn’t think one of his biggest problems with the Gilbert girl would be that she was simply cooking inedible. After a while, Damon gathered all his culinary sciences and took control of the kitchen. He went through all the remaining family recipes, including those left behind by Stefan, and did his best to bring hot, edible food to the table every day. The saying seems to have proved true; the road leads to a man's heart through his belly. Damon came from a bloody Italian-American family, which meant he loved to eat good ones.</p><p>But the source of these quarrels came from a single thing that Damon found very difficult to admit to himself. His unquenchable love for her was simply over. He didn't know why, how, when, but he wasn't in love with Elena at all anymore. And because of that, he was tormented by terrible guilt. He still cared for her and felt love for her, but he was no longer in love. The pink mist suddenly burst, and what was left he didn’t like it at all.</p><p>At first, only Elena's voice started to annoy him. At times, she had the same tone as Katherine’s. Then it became boring for him to constantly listen to the rumors circulating in the hallways of the hospital. Where he cared about which sister Brian (or Bob or Brandt) was mixing with. He just listened with a sly grin on his face as his girlfriend chatted for hours about the affairs between her colleagues. It’s like having to sit through a Brazilian soap opera.</p><p>Elena went hanging out with her colleagues at times, and very rarely managed to drag Damon with her. The Salvatore bears only few people around him, but this company surpassed everything. Stormy, drunk young people who had no idea about real life. He scolded them. But he pretended to enjoy their company. Of course, Elena noticed that something was wrong. One of those nights Damon spent texting with Bonnie the whole time. The girl was just near the internet. They had a terrible quarrel with Elena after they got home.</p><p>Elena threw his head that Damon wasn't even interested in her life, and Damon called her friends an idiot, and Elena could better choose who to talk to. That's when Bonnie's name first appeared. Damon found it all ridiculous. Bonnie was his best friend. The only person on earth he really trusted who understood what he was going through, who didn’t want to change him. He owed her with his life, and even more. The assumption that there was more between them than friendship simply sounded absurd. At first.</p><p>But the more time it had been since the witch left, the more he thought about how good it was to be with Bonnie. And that completely takes out of him. He couldn't fall in love with the girl. He simply didn’t have the right to nurture such emotions for her. Thinking about the terrible things he had did against her, he often even questioned whether he was worthy of her friendship. He didn't dare think what it would be like to lose that friendship once. He would definitely go crazy.</p><p>Bonnie was his refuge. He shared everything with her. He respected and loved her. He was attached to her in the way as nobody else in his life so far, but he simply even rejected the idea that it would be more than friendship.</p><p>And still. He couldn’t stand a day without hearing her voice, not making sure she was okay. As now. The Bennett witch was about to take a huge step, and Damon hoped Bonnie would be able to move on. She will find some ordinary guy, a Matt Donovan type, with whom they can have a long, happy life. Kids, white fenced house, dog, barbecue party in the garden. (He shivered at the thought, his stomach shrinking a fist.) He missed her very much. He hoped that when Bonnie came home, she would help him solve his problems, as she always did.</p><p>Damon looked at his watch. Slowly, for two hours, he sat next to Stefan's grave. He had to get up because he took an evening shift at the Grill. He would have liked to have been sitting there for a while, pondering the great things in life, but he was already hungry.</p><p> </p><p>As he walked out of the crypt and wanted to step through the door, he felt a sudden jerk in his stomach, then it was as if he had fallen. It didn’t take more than a few seconds, but when the “fall” was over, Damon found himself inside the crypt again. However, something was wrong. The location of the colors, the air, the smells, the stones, as if it were not the same place, he had wanted to leave barely half a minute ago. He carried his gaze around in shock to assess his situation.</p><p>The first shock came to him when he saw Bonnie Bennett kneeling on the ground, blinking at him in surprise. He didn't even notice that the woman had a huge belly. He saw it, but his brain didn't process the information. Then he saw the grinning Kai Parker, and the red mist covered his brain. Kai held Bonnie's hand as he saw the heretic vampire witch suck the magic out of Bonnie. He was terribly terrified and then attacked the man with all his human strength. He didn't even feel two strong arms wanting to pull his hand off Kai's neck. There was nothing he could think about but that Kai should be removed from near Bonnie as soon as possible. He sensed the cries faintly, then came in complete darkness.</p><p>He woke up between soft pillows and someone smoothed his face. When he opened his eyes, he was very happy. Bonnie Bennett smiled back at him safe and sound. Then he was completely confused.</p><p>“Bon-Bon? How do you get here?” He asked hoarsely. “Not that I'm not happy for you. In fact this may be the best part of the day, but…”</p><p>Then he looked around better. He stared with his mouth open, then almost fainted again when he saw himself grinning wide at him.</p><p>“Bon-Bon? I like this! According to it, you also have a Bonnie.”</p><p>Damon was scared at first. He immediately sat up in bed. He still didn't notice that Bonnie had a remarkably large belly, just staring at his own embodied image.</p><p>“What the hell is going on here, Bon?!” He still didn't take his eyes off his doppelganger. “Don't say you're one of them! I haven’t be a doppelganger.</p><p>He gasped for air while his other self was still grinning smugly. This smirk can be really annoying. He finally looked at Bonnie.</p><p>"Can you finally tell me what the hell is going on here? You were in London two hours ago, and unless you’ve acquired secret superpowers in the meantime, you should still be there.”</p><p>The word stuck in his throat. Now he noticed the witch's belly.</p><p>“It is… How?” - He moaned.</p><p>The Bennett witch smiled kindly at him, then turned to the other Damon.</p><p>“I think you'd better go out now. I’ll call you later.”</p><p>His alter ego walked over to Bonnie, and to Damon's biggest surprise, he pressed a running kiss to her lips, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The older Salvatore could only yawn, no sound coming out of his throat.</p><p>“Please, Damon!” Said the pregnant (!) Bonnie Bennett in a reassuring voice as she took the man's hand. "I know you're in shock now, but try to calm down. Breathe with me!”</p><p>Bonnie took a deep breath through her nose and then slowly blew it through her mouth. Damon imitated him. After a few such breathing exercises, he really calmed down a bit.</p><p>“Better?” The witch asked.</p><p>“Yes. But I don't understand anything either.”</p><p>“We’ll explain everything in detail, but for now, let’s have enough that you’re no longer in Kansas, Dorothy.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Bonnie's smile subsided and she looked back at him a little disappointed.</p><p>“It was a joke. I wanted to lighten the mood.” She sighed heavily. "Where you're in is a parallel universe, and I'm not your Bonnie. The one you've seen before is one of your alter egos. He is my husband, Damon Salvatore.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>How do you like it? Please, show me:) This chapter was a little bit sappy. Damon and Bonnie are still friends for now. But what will happen if they can see the opportunities of another life? The next chapter will come soon.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Another world</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>My dearest readers, </p>
<p>I know you needed to wait for this update much. But as i said i have another work. Thank you so much for your nice wods as always. I am always happy when i see your comments and when I see how you enjoy my story:) If you want me tp be happy and want to support me too than write and/or give some kudos:)) So this here is another chapter for you:)) Have a nice read:)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>From this chapter: Damon try to adjust to the new world and wants to see Stefan. In his rea world Bonnie realizes that her best friend just disappeard from the Earth. She rushed home to Mystic Falls.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 3</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <b>Another world</b>
  </p>
</div><p><i>‘He is my husband, Damon Salvatore.</i>’ ‘<i>He is my husband, Damon Salvatore.</i>’ And again. ‘<i>He is my husband, Damon Salvatore.</i>’ Again, and again. The words echoed like an endless recording in Damon's brain. He just stared at Bonnie sitting in front of him, who looked back at him with a kind, warm smile on her face. His head roared. He felt his brain explode. Every sentence that had left the witch's mouth for the past few minutes seemed an impossibility. Some weird things happened to him, but alter egos, parallel worlds, and is he Bonnie Bennett’s husband? It was all surreal.</p>
<p>Questions swirled in him as he tried to get off the bed. His arms and neck also hurt. Bonnie pushed him back onto the bed with subtle violence; Damon didn't object. Instead, he began to stare at the ceiling. He wanted to put his thoughts together, but he still didn't fully recover. '<i>He's my husband, Damon Salvatore.</i>' He already knew what he wanted to ask.</p>
<p>“What about Elena?”</p>
<p>The thought that there could be a world in which he was not with the Gilbert girl was both disturbing and strangely reassuring. On second thought, they were together for more than three carefree months of having sex. Something always intervened and they broke up with each other more times than an average, healthy relationship could have endured. Their current coexistence was no different. The sharp contrasts between the two still lurked there beneath the surface, sometimes breaking out of oppression, exploding over such petty things as cleaning or cooking. Although their lives were no longer in constant danger, they also brought out the worst of each other as human beings. He had never foreseen this when he dreamed of how wonderful it would be to grow old together.</p>
<p>That’s why he found it so reassuring that maybe there’s a Damon Salvatore somewhere who didn’t have to go through as much torment because of the doppelganger. At the same time, he loved Elena and was afraid to find out what kind of person he would be without her. His feelings for Elena gave him stability, keeping him sober in the darkest hours of his life. He clung desperately to this love as he the memory of Katherine at the time. He feared that if this bond were torn between the two of them, there would be nothing left for him in this world that would hold him together and he would collapse.</p>
<p>The other Bonnie frowned as if searching her memories.</p>
<p>“Elena?”</p>
<p>She asked back uncertainly, which completely surprised Damon. Bonnie and Elena were best friends, almost brothers. This Bennett witch, on the other hand, doesn't seem to even know the girl. Now he was beginning to believe that this could really be some strange parallel dimension.<br/>
</p>
<p>"Elena Gilbert." Damon's voice was hoarse. He had to clear his throat.</p>
<p>Recognition flashed in Bonnie's eyes.</p>
<p>”Ahhh! The Petrova doppelganger.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was no liking in Bonnie's voice. She uttered the words from her mouth in a mocking tone, and the wording was also interesting. To refer to Elena as a Petrova doppelganger was to call mortals a product of blood on two legs: derogatory and pity. In any case, Damon inferred from this that this world is not so different from theirs either. Similarities; check. Silus and Amara; check. A living, breathing, pregnant (!) Bennett witch; check.</p>
<p>“Why do you ask?”</p>
<p>Damon considered the answer. If he was shocked (and he was) by the fact that this worldly (what did she call her?) Alter ego was the Bennett witch’s husband, what would Bonnie sitting in front of him say about he is with being Elena Gilbert (whom she apparently didn't really know or like). This woman may not be his Bonnie, but she treated him kindly and looked at him with as bright green eyes as his witch. (Well, yes. Aside from the disturbing feelings what his best friend caused him often and still causes, he was always sure of something: Bonnie Bennett is his witch; and dot.) He didn't want to hurt her, he somehow felt she doesn’t deserve it. Thus, he gave the following answer:</p>
<p>“Just because.” He shrugged. “We're in friends in my world. I wondered if this was the case here too.”</p>
<p>He already felt much more collected. Thanks to his ability to catch up quickly, which fortunately he didn’t lose as a human being, he was able to easily adapt to unexpected situations. Had it not been so, he would no longer be alive. He began to realize that where he had really fallen was another place. It wasn’t quite like the prison worlds or the terrible hell where Arcadias would have sent him, but it was definitely different. The smells, the air, the place where he lay, everything was different. His curiosity erupted. How different is this world from his? How did the fate of the players change? It’s certainly not the same lineup as at home, since here he’s Bonnie Bennett’s husband (or his alter ego is the witch’s husband). Did he spend most of his life here as a psychopath, homicidal vampire? Was this Damon Salvatore imprisoned at Augustine the way he was? Now that he was a little calm, he had countless questions.</p>
<p>Bon sighed heavily. She also seemed to ponder the answer.<br/>
</p>
<p>“Huh! We don't really like her. I mean, we're bear her, but Damon - I mean my Damon - tries to keep himself and his family as far away from the doppelganger as possible. We don’t really have a good experience with her kind.” Bonnie smiled at him again. "But I'm glad to hear that the situation may have been different for you."</p>
<p>No. That was Damon's instinctive reaction. Nor did they have a good experience with the doppelgangers. Stefan died because of Katherine, and almost everyone around them was sacrificed in Elena's defense. So, if none of the Salvatore brothers in this world were madly in love with Elena, it is only natural that they should try to keep themselves away from the danger posed by the mere existence of their doppelgangers. Maybe the Universe wasn't playing with them here.</p>
<p>The witch scanned his face deeply, and now, for the first time, Damon smiled. There is something that remains the same in every world. Apparently, Bonnie really likes him here too. It is also a good starting point for getting information and getting back.</p>
<p>"I have a thousand questions for you right now, but I'm terribly hungry." "He was able to fix that on his loud stomach. “If there was something to snack on in this strange place… Actually, where are we?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bonnie's face brightened.</p>
<p>“At the Salvatore Boarding School. And we’re sure to find you something edible in the kitchen.”</p>
<p>This is also right. The Salvatore Boarding School now exists in his world. It is true that it was launched barely a year ago, but it is there.</p>
<p>"I'll call you something right away," Bonnie said. “It's not advisable to get up for a while. I knocked you out pretty hard for and thousand apologies for it, but you wanted to kill Kai.”</p>
<p>Another mystery. This is definitely a reverse world. They don't like Elena, but they take Kai in their defense.</p>
<p>"So, Kai Parker," Damon began cautiously. “Here he is…” He just couldn't think of anything nice for him. He hated him so much that it already hurt.</p>
<p>“Kai was one of our students. He’s not exactly the dearest guy, I admit that, but he helps us a lot and we love him very much. He was accepted by the family.”</p>
<p>And this family again.</p>
<p>"Who exactly make up this great family that hosted an insane, psychopathic, serial killer?"</p>
<p>The witch gathered so far, smiling, measuredly trying to give satisfactory answers to his questions, suddenly cut a very surprised face, then her gaze darkened.</p>
<p>"What do you mean, psychopathic serial killer?"</p>
<p>Damon pursed his lips with a sneer.</p>
<p>“The Kai I know has murdered his entire family, put my girlfriend in a magical coma, and connected her life with my Bonnie Bennett. She couldn't wake up until Bonnie died. Sure, I cut off his head, but then the little worm came back from hell to further bitter my life, and then Bonnie locked him up in another prison world where I hope he’ll be rotting for another thousand years.</p>
<p>"Hmmm…," came the not-so-content answer. “That explains a few things.” The witch looked sideways in embarrassment, and by the time she turned back, accompanied by a forced smile, she stood awkwardly out of bed. She started for the door. “I'll get you something to eat.” Her voice was low and sad. “In the meantime, feel free to look around! Move carefully, if you feel dizzy, lie back!”</p>
<p>She left the room with that. Damon looked after her in surprise. For now, he didn't understand why the witch's cheerful mood had disappeared. She may have been overwhelmed by the news that they aren’t together, or maybe she was in an overcast mood because he just confessed to cutting off someone’s head. He couldn't figure it out yet. </p>
<p>He got up from the bed and walked around the room. There weren't too many attractions. It looked more like an empty college room than a boarding house’s. That's why he recognized the room. It was one of the smaller rooms of the former boarding house. They often walked around the house with Bonnie in the ‘94 prison world. They were looking for old things, dressed as 19th century aristocrats to have something to hit time with. They once staged a ball when they found an ancient gramophone that Damon made working. It turned out that the witch danced very well and could perfectly align herself among the American social elite of the Civil War. Of course, if she wasn’t black. He was always guilty of the thought. He had once fought on the south side, though he did not do so out of conviction. He would be even as an abolitionist rather than a slave-driver, but at the time, Damon did not dare to confront his father. Now he was shocked at how old he really was. An old man. It is really a fitting nickname.</p>
<p>His attention was drawn to a book left on a dusty shelf. Interestingly, Stefan loved to write rather than read. The bookworm of the Salvatore family was clearly Damon. If he could (and not just quenched his blood thirst), he would always read. He also liked classics, but popular literature was closer to his heart. There were horrible readings among them, like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Gray, but King and Tolkien were happy to read. He loved Rowling outright.</p>
<p>He picked up the slightly worn-out book. Someone seemed to have read it several times already. He read aloud the inscription on it’s cover.</p>
<p>
  <i>“S. Salvatore: Blood and horror, or how to control our unnatural desires.”</i>
</p>
<p>He chuckled. According to it, Stefan here may have exploited his writing tendencies. Warmth poured out his heart at the thought. He really missed his brother. He didn't even notice he was crying silently, only when one of the fat tears landed on the cover. He put the volume back on the shelf and wiped his eyes. Then a very familiar jingling, excited voice hit his ear.</p>
<p>“Come on, Bon!” That was Caroline. “I'm just curious. This Damon is a human. I've never seen human Damon Salvatore. How does he look like? Is he fat?” Damon snorted mockingly. “Is there a distorted scar on it? A broken nose?”</p>
<p>Damon listened intently.</p>
<p>"He's just as handsome and irresistible as the others."</p>
<p>“I'm still curious. For example, Professor sometimes wears glasses.”</p>
<p>“Out of fashion. And because Little Bird told him he had such a sexy teacher look when he picked it up.”<br/>
“What about Dark? In the past, he had grown his hair so long that he had to be caught in a ponytail.”</p>
<p>“Bo immediately cut it off.”</p>
<p>“And D. is always wearing an idiotic Hawaiian patterned shirt and walking in bermuda shorts.”</p>
<p>From this conversation, Damon filtered one thing. He’s not the only alter ego, and based on what Caroline said, all the other selves are vampires or something like that. He didn’t have time to ponder for long because, as expected, Caroline won. The blonde girl entered the room with a wide smile on her face. She immediately held out her hand toward him. Damon accepted it. There is something that is the same here.</p>
<p>“Hello, I'm Caroline Salvatore.”</p>
<p>Or not.</p>
<p>"Damon, but I have a feeling you already know that."</p>
<p>She chuckled.</p>
<p>“Yes. Bon said they found another one with Kai, and I was just wondering what your special introductory mark was to you.”</p>
<p>In the background, Bonnie sighed wearily. She was balancing a tray with an orange liquid in a glass and pancakes next to it (who would have thought that?). Blueberry pancakes with a vampire face. Damon chuckled. The two women looked at him questioningly. Damon waved, then took the tray from Bonnie.<br/>
"I think," he said as he sat on the bed and began to eat the pancakes, "is my special mark." He swallowed the bite. “that I'm human.”</p>
<p>Caroline and Bonnie pulled two chairs in front of the bed and sat down across from him.</p>
<p>"Well, yes," the witch nodded. “That surprised us too.”</p>
<p>"So far, every Damon Salvatore who just stepped here was a vampire. How come you're not?”</p>
<p>Damon looked up from the tray at the two women. He was about to stuff another bite in his mouth, but it fell out of his hands. He stared with his mouth open at those sitting in front of him.</p>
<p>“What do you mean, all of them?”</p>
<p>Bonnie took a deep breath as Caroline's scanning, blue eyes examined him, as if looking for really tangible features on him.</p>
<p>"You're the fourth Damon Salvatore we met besides my husband. The others will come tomorrow as well, and then we can map out the differences and similarities between our worlds, allowing Professor to experiment further.”</p>
<p>Damon listened to the witch in shock.</p>
<p>"We can also figure out how you will can go back to your own world. There is always a link, a person, or an event that connects the worlds. So far, we thought they were the Bennett witches, but we seem to have been wrong because you landed in the crypt without Bonnie Bennett.”</p>
<p>Damon took a sip of the orange juice as his mouth was completely dry. He couldn't gather a meaningful thought. He showed up without Bonnie Bennett. If this is not an ordinary thing, then the other alter egos also have a close relationship with the witch. But how close is it? If he counted well, there are five Damon Salvatore. Well, many times one is enough. How can they handle this chaos at all? And who is that Professor? At first, it sounds very strangely, he thought about Atticus Shane. Perhaps in his case, too, a role change took place and he became from creepy prof, to a decent, kind man who was not a mass murderer. Or maybe Alaric? Even he seemed a chance.</p>
<p>"You must have countless questions," Caroline said. "The first time Professor and Little Bird came over, we didn't even know what to do. Lily baked him apple pie, which she had already started baking for you anyway, and Stefan, Damon, and I opened a bottle of bourbon and drank all of it almost immediately. Enzo just stared at them in shock all day while they were here. So, the chaos was complete.”</p>
<p>Damon took the tray down, slowly, carefully. He wiped his hands on the napkin and then stood up. The two women fell silent. They could see in him that he was very confused. The Blondie looked apologetically at Bonnie and him. He began to pacing in the room. He ran his fingers through his hair several times.</p>
<p>"So Lily, my mother, is alive," he turned suddenly to the girls. Bonnie just nodded silently.</p>
<p>"Technically, she's not your," Caroline began, but Bon indicated with a look that he'd better shut up now.</p>
<p>“And Enzo is alive too.” Damon's voice grew nervous.</p>
<p>Caroline couldn't stop herself from intervening.</p>
<p>“She's Lily's husband. Our father-in-law or something like that.”<br/>
</p>
<p>“What???”</p>
<p>“Try to calm down.” Bonnie wanted to get up, but Damon gave her such a desperate look that she thought it better to stay seated. "That's why I didn't want to hit you with all at once. This is not the first time we have done it and there is a standard procedure.”</p>
<p>Damon gasped. It produced the typical symptoms of a panic attack. A faint memory of bloodthirst burst into him, and now he really wanted to be a vampire again. He tried to breathe evenly, to calm himself. There was so much emotion swirling in him. Grief, pain, shame, relief, guilt. His lungs were stabbed, he could barely breathe, his head was swirling, and if he couldn't calm down soon, he would see the pancakes he had eaten. Suddenly he had an idea. He was afraid he might have come to the wrong conclusion, but he has to try it. He turned to Bonnie and Caroline.</p>
<p>“I want to see Stefan!”</p>
<p>The two women looked at each other. There was a silent conversation, which may have been about whether it was a good idea to let a mad alter ego near the younger Salvatore. This was probably not included in the protocol. The decision was finally made.</p>
<p>"All right," Bonnie said.</p>
<p>"But remember, this Stefan isn't your younger brother!"</p>
<p>Damon looked at Caroline with piercing eyes. When he spoke, his voice was cold, and stifled anger dripped from him.</p>
<p>“I know it, Blondie. Because my brother is dead. Just like my mother and Enzo. I am aware that this is not my world.”</p>
<p>The statement was followed by a shocked silence, then Bonnie slowly stood up and walked out the door, still amazed at what she heard. Caroline walked over to Damon. She stroked his arm with a hesitant gesture. Probably as a reassurance, but it didn’t help the man.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry," she whispered, finally walking away.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>~*~</p>
</div><p> </p>
<p>Bon stepped down the stairs in trouble. She could only think of the way the man looked at her. She had never seen so much pain and sadness on any of Damon's faces. Though Dark and Bo didn’t have an easy life either, but even they seemed happy no matter how many times they came over. It could be a dark place from where this Damon Salvatore popped up, plus without Bonnie. Her heart was broken for him. She couldn't even imagine a world where the brothers wouldn't have been each other's supports, and she didn't want to think that Elena Gilbert had managed to net them. There was only grief and pain in the wake of that woman. Even her mere existence brought misery to those around her. Each Elena she had ever heard of was selfish, petty, manipulative, and two-tone. Her Damon expressly forbade her to stay within a mile of the school. Sheriff Forbes even issued a restraining order. Just in case. If the Gilbert girl, whose father is a sociopathic, vampire-torturing murderer, came close to the brothers, then all of this reason for Damon’s sadness.</p>
<p>Bon reached the huge library room. The walls were surrounded by a long system of shelves full of books. They were arranged in a gallery style back in the early twentieth century. The collection consisted of three major parts. Fiction (classical and popular), grimoires, and ancient legends in an educational way. The shelf system was separated from the reading room below by a wooden carved railing. It looked like a 19th century salon. Comfortable leather armchairs, smaller tables, and two opposite sofas in the middle. To protect the books, the room was dimly lit. The large, heavy, velvet curtains were always kept tight, only a little sunlight filtered in through the slits sometimes. Ancient objects were kept in small vitrines under the windows and on the edge of the driveway in the middle of the room. Old daylight rings, Travelers killer dagger, sword of the Brotherhood of Five, etc.… Objects that were magically imbued, preserving them for posterity.</p>
<p>The school has been around for about a hundred and twenty years. After Damon and Stefan burned the old estate to dust and the elder Salvatore, who had lost his mind in mourning, reconnected his human emotions, this school was established to protect the Bennett witches. Of the founding families, the Lockwoods were involved (given that they were werewolves) and then the reign of the founding families in Mystic Falls was ended. In the small town, simple mortal and supernatural can now coexist in peace. The city council is still working, but the mysterious affairs are being solved together with the school. Through their special ally, Enzo, who is a member of the upscale St. John family, the Armory. They have accumulated a wealth of knowledge over the centuries, and their help always comes in handy when there is something very big tangle.</p>
<p>The school also has generous supporters. The Mikaelson family, who could be forever grateful to the Bennetts for finally getting their oldest boy out of a millennial curse, and Niklaus Mikaelson could become a hybrid. It is true that he then began a bloody amok run, but eventually a deal could be made with him when Bon realized from the Armory research that the hybrids were capable of reproduction. Therefore, in exchange for the information, Klaus and his entire family gained loyalty. So it’s no wonder they help the school survive with a multi-million dollar a year.</p>
<p>The other such generous founders are the Lockwoods, cause generations of werewolves have been taught how to master their murderous instincts. And of course there are the families of vampires (who already has it). Undoubtedly, they make up the biggest part of the school’s students. Most of the witch covens take care of the teaching in-house as well, there are not many werewolves left, and there is only one hybrid offspring yet (Hope Mikaelson, Klaus’s fairy little girl), leaving the vampires with surprisingly much less trouble than with the other two species. Vampires can be taught discipline, self-control, how to feed, what to do if they are captured by a desire to kill. Everyone considers as an abberation of the nature, though they are the most human. They are often more human than humans. The older vampires have a view of the world that ordinary mortals cannot understand. Perfect teachers in the school of supernatural beings.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bon found Damon reading in one of the armchairs. The man immediately set the book aside on the small table next to the armchair and patted his knees invitingly. The witch jumped into her husband's lap with a smile, then buried her face almost immediately in the vampire's neck. He had a good touch of cool skin. She inhaled deeply the scent of the other, which was masculine, yet always filled her heart with a pleasant warmth. She felt safe.</p>
<p>“Is it that awful?” Damon asked. He could see on her how exhausted she was from that one conversation.</p>
<p>"His Stefan is dead," Bon replied with a big sigh. "Her mother is dead, Enzo is dead, and on top of everything, Elena Gilbert is his friend." Bon shrugged and let out a fake smile.</p>
<p>“Mrs. Donovan?” Damon looked at his wife in disbelief, pulling his mouth away in disgust at the name. "Who can be so stupid as to veil a woman who looks the same as the one who ruined his life?"</p>
<p>“I heard this!” Said Katherine Pierce, who was just entering the library.</p>
<p>Damon turned his head sideways to take a closer look at the sneaking vampire.</p>
<p>“Kitty Kat! You are the only one who missed.”</p>
<p>Bon, on the other hand, greeted her with a smile. Although Katherine had committed a lot of evil in the past, over time she became their ally. The brothers reconciled with this. Roughly. She caused Damon a wound that the vampire can't forget easily. Kat killed Emily Bennett.</p>
<p>“Hello! What is so awful about our new guest?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Katherine threw herself on one of the couches, and Bon unfolded from her husband's embrace. She stood up heavily, then sat down next to Katherine. She tried to speak lightly, but her heart ached as she thought about what Damon's new alter ego had to go through.</p>
<p>“He is human.” Perhaps that was the most shocking of them all.</p>
<p>“Hah!” That was Katherine's reaction.</p>
<p>"And almost everyone he could love is dead."</p>
<p>Damon suddenly got his head to the side and a flash of fear flashed in his eyes for a moment.</p>
<p>“Don't say that he don't have a Bonnie with because…”</p>
<p>Apparently, he couldn't say it. The fact that he might one day lose his wife terrified him to death. He had already rejected the mere thought. They just waited to be able to ensure the survival of the Bennett bloodline, but then he would immediately turn her into a vampire. That was the deal with the Bennetts.</p>
<p>Bon shook her head.</p>
<p>“I don’t think so. I'm sure his Bonnie Bennett is alive. But not at all whether they are together. He said something weird.” The other two looked at her expectantly. "Kai Parker in his world can be a madman and a sadist. He killed all the members of the Gemini coven and tied Bonnie's life to Damon's girlfriend.” Bon waited in fear for the other two's reaction to this. Katherine couldn't even speak in shock, while Damon rubbed his chin deep in thought.</p>
<p>"So, is Bonnie Bennett around him, but they're not together?" Damon asked.</p>
<p>Bon shrugged.</p>
<p>“It seems so.”</p>
<p>“I'd say they're not together yet.” Katherine pressed the word hard. “If they have as confusing relationship as D. and Hollyberry, or Dark and Bo, I’m not surprised.”</p>
<p>Katherine stood up and walked to one of the shelves full of books.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry to leave you here, but I was only looking for stuffs for one of my classes. The students will be back soon and I need to be prepared while I am waiting for the little idiots.” She suddenly got to his mouth, but the movement of innocence was just played. “Uh, sorry! I wanted to say that sweet little kids.”</p>
<p>Damon shook his head and Bon rolled her eyes. Katherine is just being Katherine.</p>
<p>“How are you?”</p>
<p>Bonnie shook her head.</p>
<p>"You didn't see his face, Damon! He was so desperate, full of pain. I've never seen any of you like that before.”</p>
<p>Damon sat close to his wife, hugging her, then burying his face in her hair as he pulled her head to his chest. So they sat for a few seconds, then Bon unfolded from the embrace. Damon always knew when to talk and when to simply listen. He developed a miraculous ability to reassure her.</p>
<p>“He wants to meet Stefan.”</p>
<p>“Do you think this is a good idea?”</p>
<p>Bon thought about that. It is difficult to separate the alter egos from each other. She didn't want to inflict even more mental wounds on the man or promise him false dreams, but maybe Stefan could help him get answers and them to get information.</p>
<p>“Let him. See if he can reassure him.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Damon nodded, then roared.</p>
<p>“Hey, Stefibear! You have a revelation!”</p>
<p>A minute later, Stefan Salvatore's cheerful face appeared in the library door.</p>
<p>“Did you call me?”</p>
<p>Damon motioned him for them.</p>
<p>“Our new guest wants to see you.”</p>
<p>Stefan looked back at them questioningly.</p>
<p>“Why me?”</p>
<p>The older brother stood up and patted his brother's shoulder amiably.</p>
<p>“The eternal question, Stef. Why would anyone stare at your gloomy face when I am here? The handsome and irresistible…”</p>
<p>"Rather arrogant and scratchy," Bon interrupted him as she stood up. “Be careful with him!” She has already addressed this to Stefan. “He lost his brother. That's probably why he wants to see you. Try to reassure him that he is in the right place and as soon as he reveals how he got here and what his world is like, he can go back. The point is not to panic. Let him know that you are not his Stefan! Be careful of your wording!”</p>
<p>Stefan stopped the witch.</p>
<p>“I know I know. This is not the first time we have done it.”</p>
<p>Bon nodded.</p>
<p>“All right.” She spread her arms and then clapped her palms. "Then, I'll go and see if Lily needs help in the kitchen."</p>
<p>Damon and Bonnie exchanged kisses, then everyone went about their business. Bon just dared to hope that Stefan would manage to achieve some results.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>~*~</p>
</div><p> </p>
<p>Damon walked up and down the room like a savage. Patience was not one of his virtues, and it had been at least ten minutes since the two women left. He was amazed that he had not set out on a journey of discovery in the house. This may have had to do with carefully compensating for his impatient nature, especially since he became human. He hated that he couldn’t listen in on the conversations right now. He was sure there was a discussion about him down there.</p>
<p>He began to feel cramped, wanting to get out of here, but surprisingly he wanted to explore this new world rather than go home. The only thing he missed about home was Bonnie. It would be good fun to find out with him, how their world differs from this seemingly Good Place (He also watched Netflix like any young man, after all, he was only twenty-six years old. On paper). But lest revealed that the Good Place is in fact the Bad Place and with it he would be seemed as foolish. Now he totally felt like Eleanor. Who will be his Chidi?</p>
<p>The door opened and he could finally see the face he missed so slowly for a year that he couldn't sleep. He shows up again and again in his nightmares as Stefan dies and he watches helplessly. He had been each other's brothers for over one hundred and fifty years and lost him. Because of Elena. Deep down, in the depths of his soul, he blamed Elena for Stefan's death, and this piece of him hated her for it.</p>
<p>“Hello!” The younger Salvatore entered the room carefully.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Damon froze for a moment. He expected this Stefan to be different. There will be something that will differentiate him from his own brother, but no. The man waiting with his arms folded in the doorway had the same kind eyes as his Stephen. He gelled his hair just as ridiculously, and his voice seemed as reassuring as he remembered it. Plaid shirt and navy blue jeans. Even that was right.</p>
<p>He crossed the room in two long steps and fell on Stefan's neck. If the other was surprised, he didn't show it, for he hugged her back. He patted Damon's back friendly and let the other teared his shoulder. Bon's words echoed in his head as she warned him to be careful. He carefully pulled Damon's hands off of him and took a small step back. There was a smile in his gaze as he surveyed his brother's alter ego. He clearly felt that the man in front of him was a human. He could hear his heart pounding, he could smell the sweet smell of blood racing through his veins, he could discover the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, and the warmth emanating from his body clearly confirmed what Caroline had already told him.</p>
<p>Damon was embarrassed. His emotions broke, but he really couldn’t be blamed for it. Even though he realized with his brain that this Stefan was not his brother, too much grief had gathered in him and he could not restrain himself. He was simply glad to see this face, as always.</p>
<p>“Well?” Stefan raised an eyebrow. “What would you like to talk to me about?”</p>
<p>Suddenly Damon didn't know what to say. He felt clueless. He would have had so many questions; he didn't even know where to start. Meanwhile, Stefan sat down in a chair by the bed after taking the book Damon had been looking at from the shelf.</p>
<p>"I see you found the other Stefan’s book. Interesting reading. I didn’t even remember who I was lending to.” He amused the volume in his hands.</p>
<p>Damon finally found himself. He swallowed hard.</p>
<p>"So, are there more Stefan?"</p>
<p>The other looked at him.</p>
<p>“Yes. Exactly four. This,” he lifted the book, “was written by Professor's younger brother.”</p>
<p>Damon was amazed.</p>
<p>“So, Professor is…?”</p>
<p>“Also one of Damon Salvatore. More specifically, Dr. Damon Salvatore phd., md., habil. Or something like that. He has about six doctorates and he is a real genius. He always boasts that his IQ is about twenty points higher than Einstein’s and how much he liked to tease him with it.”</p>
<p>Damon couldn't say a word. The idea of having a self that was so highly educated and so clever seemed simply absurd. Although he himself was attracted to the sciences at a very young age, somewhere halfway he lost that attraction. He remembered another name.</p>
<p>“And Little Bird?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stefan chuckled.</p>
<p>“He's Professor's fiancé. Another Bonnie Bennett. By the way, what about your Bonnie?”</p>
<p>Surprise wasn’t a good enough word for what Damon felt at that moment. It’s one thing to have a world where she and Bonnie are together, plus in peace and love, but that there’s one more of that? And, if he guessed right, it’s not even one, but maybe more.</p>
<p>"Yet how many Damon Salvatore chose Bonnie Bennett for his true love?" Damon asked, with the already familiar sarcasm in his voice and his trademark smirk on his face.</p>
<p>"All of them," was the simple answer.</p>
<p>Damon nodded. It seemed at least as unimaginable to him as real.</p>
<p>"And what about the Elena Gilberts?"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stefan thought for a moment. Wrinkles appeared on his forehead that Damon was already familiar with. He was talking to this Stefan like his own younger brother. The words came to his mouth more easily, and he trusted the one sitting in front of him. It wasn’t as if the this world’s Bonnie Bennett hadn’t been dazzlingly beautiful and reassuring, but he was very bothered by that belly. It was hard to digest to see Bon-Bon as a pregnant woman. And his Bon-Bon is far away now.</p>
<p>"Fortunately, the Elena Gilberts aren’t part of our lives. I don't think Dark even knows her. D. and Hollyberry keep their distance from both Petrova doppelgangers, and Professor also does not allow either of them near his family.” Stefan sighed heavily. "I, on the other hand, made the mistake of falling in love with her, and if I don't have my brother and Caroline, I'll stay in her net forever."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I made the mistake of falling in love with her. It was as if his own feelings were reflected back in the words. Was it really a mistake to fall in love with Elena? With Katherine? Sure. But with Elena? She was kind, caring, cheerful. But honestly? Damon wouldn't have commend a cat to her. She was a lousy girlfriend, and their relationship was just as toxic to them as human as a  vampire. He tried to change it when he returned from the prison world. He really tried hard. Deprived of the memories of their love, Elena could start over and work. For a while. But Damon didn't feel better next to her. The bitter taste of anger kept his mouth burning there no matter how many times he remembered what she had done. He felt betrayed. No matter how he fought with it, that feeling was always there in him. In contrast with Bonnie… Well, Bonnie was different. She persuaded him to see the world differently. She didn't judge him anymore, but she didn't apologize. With her actions, she encouraged him to be better, to want to show more of himself, not to be afraid of people. She taught him the huge power of the forgiveness, and thanks to the witch, he has finally managed to fight her own demons. But his next question still concerned Elena.</p>
<p>"Why don't you love Elena so much? It somehow doesn't make sense for me.”</p>
<p>Stefan leaned forward and supported his chin with his fist.</p>
<p>“There's a protocol we use. It was invented by Professor. There are similarities and differences between our worlds. Matching elements connect the dimensions, while differences remove them from each other. To make an accurate measurement, we need to find the matching points. That’s why we have a series of questions to ask the newly arriving Damons and Bonnies.”</p>
<p>Damon grinned mockingly again.</p>
<p>"It's clear and understandable, but that's not the answer to my question."</p>
<p>"Actually, that's the right answer to your questions." Damon's face frowned ominously. "We have to wait for Professor and Little Bird to map your world. Since you are asking questions about Mrs. Donovan…”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>He was very struck by this.<br/>
"Elena is only referred to today as Mrs. Donovan. She is the wife of the local mayor and we only contact her if something messes up in the town that is usually related to her person.”</p>
<p>"Tell me, isn't Matt Donovan the mayor of the city?"</p>
<p>Stefan looked at him in amazement.</p>
<p>“Yes, he is. Matt is a good man and a great leader. It helps a lot of school students to integrate.”</p>
<p>Damon threw himself back on the bed, causing it to squeak dangerously.</p>
<p>“This is hell. Where Matt Donovan is a mayor of Mystic Falls may be the only hellish place. The quarterback has fought his way among the big ones and is now building a political career.”</p>
<p>He laughed involuntarily. In vain he pretended it was a terrible thing, he was actually proud of the boy. Matt, without any superpower, stood as a man in a city full of vampires, werewolves, and witches. He protected the residents and kept his home together even as the fire of hell licked the gates.</p>
<p>“He isn’t where you come from?”</p>
<p>When Stefan asked, Damon sat up and shrugged.</p>
<p>“Matty blue-eye is a good guy. He’s just a sheriff for now, but if he’s persistent enough, he can really take a lot.”</p>
<p>Stefan took a deep breath again.</p>
<p>“What about your brother? I heard from Bon that…”</p>
<p>He couldn't finish the sentence because Damon interrupted.</p>
<p>“He's dead.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Reality suddenly slapped him in the face, as if it had just fallen to him that where he was is not his reality, because whoever he was talking to is not really his brother, and this was not his Salvatore School. Everything is different here. There was a voice in the back of his consciousness. Everything is better here. That's what he felt. Now, as he took a closer look at the Salvatore brother sitting in front of him, he noticed the differences. This man had no deep wrinkles on his forehead. There was no heavy burden on his shoulders, and his eyes gleamed merrily. He did not see in his eyes the eternal sorrow that had been hiding there forever for his own brother. It only made him feel miserable. He should have died. Stefan didn't deserve that. He should have gone to hell with Katherine because they didn’t deserve a happy ending. His heart ached with pain, he couldn't look at this Stefan anymore.</p>
<p>"My brother sacrificed everything so I could live happily with Elena."</p>
<p>“Hmmm… hmmm.” Stefan muttered, as if to say it was understandable. "So the Petrova doppelganger is a part of your life."</p>
<p>Damon hated it, but tears welled up in his eyes again.</p>
<p>"He died for me on his wedding day. He made me human to live happily. He left me no choice. Just like when he persuaded me to turn. I did not want this.”</p>
<p>He looked at Stefan remorsefully, as if to apologize to him.<br/>
</p>
<p>“Who did he marry with?”</p>
<p>“With Caroline Forbes.”</p>
<p>Stefan chuckled cheerfully.</p>
<p>“It's a great relief. At least it stays the same everywhere.”</p>
<p>“So you and Blondie…”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Caroline is my wife, but I didn’t die on our wedding day, in fact. We had a great honeymoon in the Bahamas. We got married two years after Damon and Bon.”</p>
<p>It felt really good to hear that. Caroline also made his Stefan happy. She made laugh him and they stood for each other with full chest width.</p>
<p>"Is your Caroline an annoying control freak too and judging everyone?"</p>
<p>Stefan laughed again.</p>
<p>“Exactly. She’s still working on the judging behavior, but woe to the one who puts the table decorations in the wrong place at Christmas dinner. You would see what goes on here during the holidays. Mother’s own solid, 19th-century taste meets the loud, perfectionist Caroline’s. It is a real disaster.”</p>
<p>A sincere, wide smile appeared on Damon's face as well. At least that was familiar. But…</p>
<p>“Our mother, or your mother. How did it happen?”</p>
<p>"Oh, you know, Mom turned into a vampire in 1858. I was ten and my brother was seventeen. For a long time we thought she was dead, but then Emily revealed the secret.”</p>
<p>“You mean, Emily Bennett?”</p>
<p>“Yes. The Bennett witches have been serving our family with loyalty for centuries, in return we protect them.”</p>
<p>It made things a little clearer for him. If the Bennett witches were already around the Salvatores before they turned into vampires, it could easily have happened that Damon had a closer relationship with them.</p>
<p>“And how did we furnish with Mommy dearest?”</p>
<p>In his memories, Lily Salvatore, who had become a vampire, was a huge disappointment to them. But it is also true that she eventually made a decision to save his sons, and Damon reciprocated this by blaming her last time in her last minutes. Of course, he had deeply regretted this ever since, and would have given a lot if he could see his mother again. Even if she wasn’t specifically his mother.</p>
<p>“Well, that's a very long story. In short, we found her not long after our transformation. She suffered from the burden of blood thirst, but we helped her get back on her feet and we have been a big, happy family ever since.”</p>
<p>“How's Enzo coming into the picture?”</p>
<p>Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle came together. At least the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle. The witch, the lion and the wardrobe can still wait. Or rather, the Bennetts and the whole “keep ourselves away from the doppelgangers” thing.</p>
<p>“Enzo was found by our mother in Europe and brought him with her, then they fell in love with each other and the others are history.”</p>
<p>“Eeew!</p>
<p>“Why now? They are cute together. Enzo makes mom happy. Not incidentally, his connections to the Armory often come in very handy.”</p>
<p>“Hah!” Damon laughed. "This world isn't as different as I thought. The actors are the same. Even the stage, but as if someone had rewritten the screenplay.”</p>
<p>Stefan folded his arms in front of his chest and looked questioningly at Damon, who stood up in the meantime. Thoughtfully, he circled in the room, becoming more and more curious. At the same time, there was already a suspicion of what was the pivotal point that made everything different here.</p>
<p>“I’m listening!” Stefan looked at him.</p>
<p>Damon stopped. The question was already on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it hard. He didn't want to find out the whole truth yet.</p>
<p>"I was just wondering how it's possible that the Bennett witches love us, vampires so much."</p>
<p>The wording was incorrect. Damon was no part of this world, and he was no longer a vampire.</p>
<p>“The Bennett witches didn’t necessarily love the vampire Salvatores, but the family. The Salvatores still live scattered throughout the world, as they did in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. One of our ancestors made an alliance with the Bennetts, and the alliance still exists today. Thanks to us, they were able to escape from Salem, and because of us the whole coven was not burn to ashes. Plus, when Emily and Damon met, they immediately fell in love with each other. Together, they protected the slaves from the Confederate Army. When Emily realized what Katherine was like…”</p>
<p>“Enough!” Damon's sharp voice interrupted Stefan's account of the story of this Salvatore family.</p>
<p>He was on the edge of a panic attack again. He could have guessed, even deep down, when Bonnie told him they were staying away from the doppelgangers, he knew right away. Damon never fell in love with Katherine Pierce. And it also brought with a fact what he denied for so long that in the end he himself believed it was not true. He was only so obsessively in love with Elena because she looked the same as Katerina Petrova. Plus, after the girl became a vampire, her personality also became more and more like Katherine’s. And he liked it. Plus, Elena chose him over and over again. But if everything happens differently, then… Then it’s just a broken relationship from the beginning. In vain he betrayed his brother by knocking his girlfriend off his hands, in vain he sacrificed so many people for Elena's sake, including Bonnie. Everything is in vain because it is not an epic love, it is no more just an obsession. The embodiment of selfish desires.</p>
<p>He hated himself at that minute. He wanted to get out of here, he didn't want to know more. He didn't want to face how different his life would be without the two women. How much happier he could be with Bonnie. God, Bonnie. He really missed the witch. He sat down on the bed and took a deep sip of air. He was weak and powerless. Stefan put his hand reassuringly on his shoulder.</p>
<p>“Hey. Don't worry! This can be shocking for everyone. That's why we have the protocol.”</p>
<p>Damon pushed the other’s hand away.</p>
<p>“You don't understand that!” He filtered through his teeth. "You died pointlessly, Stefan!" Damon grabbed his brother's shirt. “I should have stood there! I just caused pain and suffering to everyone. I deserved to die.”</p>
<p>The other apparently couldn't say anything about it, but then, as Stefan always did, he found the right words.</p>
<p>"I don't know what your relationship was with your own brother, but you may have loved him very much. And judging by the way you talk about him, he loved you too. I love my brother too. And I would die for him a hundred times if I had to. So if your Stefan was a little like me, he knew exactly what he was doing, and his death was not meaningless.”</p>
<p>The older Salvatore stared silently into the eyes of his younger brother's copy for a while. A soothing greenish brown look, like a deer's. That's what he needed now. His breathing slowly became more even and his head no longer roared. Not only did this Stefan look a bit like his brother, but he was exactly the same. He had a hard time separating the two in his mind. At least he’s alive and he seems very happy.</p>
<p>“Come on!” The younger Salvatore pulled Damon off the bed with a big moan. “It's time to get to know the others. Anytime you see a familiar face, remember, this is not your world! It’s easy to get lost in a sea of stirring feelings.”</p>
<p>“How poetic you are!" The mocking tone returned, which meant Damon was getting better. “You speak from experience?”</p>
<p>They were already at the door.</p>
<p>“Yes. I've been over there before. We practically walk back and forth to each other. Of course, under the strict control of Bon and Kai.”</p>
<p>They walked slowly down the stairs.</p>
<p>“Well yeah. Kai. I don't think I'll be able to get used to this. Malachai Parker is the good boy.”</p>
<p>Stefan laughed.</p>
<p>“I also had a hard time seeing my brother give a lecture on theoretical physics. Or rather, string theory. You better not mention this in front of Professor. You’ll spare yourself an hour and a half of mind-boggling boring performances.”</p>
<p>“So, are the others coming tomorrow?”</p>
<p>They were almost at the bottom of the stairs.<br/>
“Yep. And it's fair to warn you about D. A little crazy, scattered and annoyingly hilarious. The kind you would punch on his face for just grinning all the time. His jokes are horrible, but his wife is an angel.”</p>
<p>“Let me find out! Bonnie Bennett.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stefan nodded with a smile.</p>
<p>“That's right. That is, Bonnie Salvatore. Exceptionally, she did not keep her maiden name.”</p>
<p>“Uh-huh.”</p>
<p>They reached the bottom of the stairs and were already turning towards the lounge, from where the noise of great hustle and bustle filtered out into the hallway.<br/>
"And now get ready, because I hear you get a Caroline§Lily greeting party."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As they turned into the living room, a smile faded from Damon's face. He looked through the people. So that was the family. Full of familiar, smiling faces. Lily held a huge tray of cookies in her hand that had a divine scent. Caroline looked at him with a mouth-to-ear mouth, and Bonnie and Damon hugged each other tightly. They were disgustingly happy. Then came those Damon hadn't seen in a very long time and was terribly missing. Lexi and Rose stood by the fireplace. They also grinned broadly. Alaric hugged Jo and Lizzie was sitting there in his one hand. It was easy to recognize the little girl. The other twin was held by Kai. Damon instinctively wanted to take her from him, but then he ordered himself to stop. Everyone who was ever dear to him stood before him. (except Katherine, who leaned against the fireplace with a wicked smile). He had to force himself not to run into their arms. But to his heart, surprisingly, the most lovely sight was provided by Sheila Bennett and Liz Forbes. It really wasn’t his world, but at that moment, he felt like he never wanted to get out of here again.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>~*~</p>
</div><p> </p>
<p>
  <i>A huge hand caresses her grown belly. She drills her face into the soft, raven-black curls. The all-too-familiar ice-blue eyes look back at her with full of love. She gets a kiss that scorches all her cells. Then she kneels opposite Kai on the floor of the Salvatore crypt and casts a spell.</i>
</p>
<p>Bonnie woke up. She immediately sensed that something was wrong. Damon is gone. Her neck was tingling, and her stomach was under a strange, tight feeling that always predicted when there was trouble. Damon is gone. Before leaving Mystic Falls, she cast a spell on the man to know when the other was going. In case of trouble, she was able to rush to his aid immediately. But now she didn't feel him. Either he was kidnapped by witches, or… Not impossible. Damon just disappeared. She looked at her watch. It showed half past six. Another piece of evidence. The man didn't call. Not even the biggest hangover could stop him from calling Bonnie at six o'clock. Damon is gone. Her heart sank into her stomach. A shivering panic overcame her and she was sweated.</p>
<p>She immediately reached for her phone and then dialed Elena's cell phone without thinking. She overcame her determination not to talk to her friend yet. There is an emergency now.</p>
<p>“God, Bonnie!” She heard a jingling, cheerful voice from the phone.</p>
<p>Bonnie sighed heavily. He really didn't have time to listen to Elena's flow of words, how much she missed her, and how well the school is going, blah, blah, blah…</p>
<p>“Hi, Elena!” Her voice remained urgent and objective. “Where's Damon?”</p>
<p>“Wow! Well, that was weird. After such a long radio silence, just where is Damon? Are you angry with me for some reason?”</p>
<p>A tired sigh left her lips again.</p>
<p>“Look, Elena! I'm sorry we haven't talked in a long time, but I don't have time for that now. Just tell me, when was the last time you saw Damon?”</p>
<p>“Is something wrong?”</p>
<p>“For God's sake Elena! Just tell me when was the last time you saw your boyfriend!” Bonnie was very nervous… and scared.</p>
<p>"I… I…" Elena's voice trailed off. “I don’t know. He didn’t come home at night and didn’t go to the Grill. Caroline says he went to the Salvatore crypt.”</p>
<p>The witch's palm itched to slap the phone down. How come she doesn't know where the love of her life is?! Now she'd rather have forced down the phone in Elena's throat. She had a hard time stifling the compulsion to start shouting at the other, and she spoke back to her relatively calmly.</p>
<p>“Damon is gone. I don't know what happened to him. If you hear anything, call me right away! I'll be in Mystic Falls this afternoon. See you at Salvatore school.”</p>
<p>"Where do you get Damon is missing?"</p>
<p>“I just know! We'll talk later!”</p>
<p>Without waiting for an answer, she slammed the phone down. While she was talking, he packed his clothes. She hoped she could catch an earlier flight. It didn’t take that long from London to Washington, if she timed it well, she could be home early in the afternoon and find her friend. She feared that a locator spell would not be enough.</p>
<p>Now she dialed Caroline. The blonde vampire picked it up almost immediately.</p>
<p>“Hi, Bonnie! What's up?”</p>
<p>“Hey, Care! It's about Damon.”</p>
<p>“What happened with him?”</p>
<p>That's what she loved about Caroline. Nothing unnecessary chatting, just the point. She could already hear from Bonnie’s voice that something was wrong, and she immediately switched to problem-solving mode.</p>
<p>“He disappeared. I cast a spell on him and now I can't feel him. I mean, nowhere. He didn't call in the morning. I'm very worried.”</p>
<p>There was a long silence, but Bonnie was sure her friend was just thinking.</p>
<p>“He went to the Salvatore crypt yesterday. I haven't heard from him since. And that's weird. I'll call Matt.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, Caroline! I already called Elena.”</p>
<p>“You don't have to say; she knows nothing.”</p>
<p>Bonnie just pursed her lips. They said goodbye to each other quickly, by which time she had hurried her clothes on herself. Half an hour later she was at the reception desk at Heathrow Airport. She stood impatiently, one on her feet and the other, watching the passengers briefing nervously. Her dream must have meant something. The Bonnie who was there as if she wasn't her. It was as if she had had a glimpse into another life. But she didn't have time to think about it more thoroughly. After minutes that seemed like hours, it was finally her turn.</p>
<p>The lady behind the counter smiled kindly but falsely at her. There was a sign of Sarah on her nameplate.</p>
<p>“Welcome! How can I help you?”</p>
<p>"I'd like a ticket for the next flight to Washington or Richmond! Which one starts sooner!”</p>
<p>Sarah's fingers raced with lightspeed on the keyboard, but for the witch it still seemed snail-slow.</p>
<p>“A through line to Washington departs at 8:35 a.m.”</p>
<p>“I would like a ticket!”</p>
<p>“I'll see if there's any free space right away!”</p>
<p>Bonnie chewed the edge of her mouth nervously. The journey to Washington is approximately eight hours. She can be in Mystic Falls before dark at the latest, or worse, she only gets there late at night. What she wouldn’t have given for a teleport magic now. Although she strongly doubted that such a thing existed at all. And no Portkeys are often produced.</p>
<p>“You're in luck! There was just a place in the economy class.</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>Bonnie picked up her credit card and handed it over. Even after a few nerve-wracking seconds, she already had her boarding pass in her hand. Then she just had to wait. She folded her hands while gnawing on her lower lip. She tried to concentrate to see if the spell she had imposed had some sort of geographical limitation, though she didn't believe in it. So far, wherever he had been, she felt the man's presence like a faint tingling that would never go away. She could find him easily whenever she wanted.</p>
<p>While waiting for the plane, she tried not to think the worst. Losing Damon would bring with pain she could no longer bear. He was her best friend, and yes, she had to admit that she might feel more to him than friendship, but she didn’t want to discover what that meant. However, losing him would be tantamount to torment for her. She wouldn't want to deal with it. That can't happen. Get into anything, she will find him. She just gets home at last!</p>
<p>She managed to rest on the plane for a couple of hours and even ate some. As she had calculated, she had already arrived in the capital late in the afternoon, and from there she drove straight to Mystic Falls in a rented car. The road was almost two hours long and it was getting dark by the time she turned onto the Old Miller Road.</p>
<p>Caroline greeted her at the door of the Salvatore house. Her face was immediately covered with her friend's blonde shower of hair, and for seconds they just hugged each other tightly. She missed Caroline too. Despite all that happened to her here, it was good to be home. When she opened her eyes over the blonde vampire's shoulder, she saw Elena stumbling nervously. The warm feeling immediately faded from her heart, and inexplicably waves of anger flooded her body, but she tried to control herself.</p>
<p>She slowly unfolded from the embrace and walked over to Elena. They faced each other in confusion. Bonnie didn't know what to say her at all. She secretly hoped she wouldn't be here by the time she arrived.</p>
<p>“Hello!” She began afterwards.</p>
<p>“Hi, Bonnie! I'm so glad to see you.” Elena pursed her lips and opened her arms in hopes of a hug that Bonnie finally gave her. But it was a forced move.</p>
<p>“Uhmm… I want to go up to Damon's room.”</p>
<p>Bonnie walked quickly toward the flight of stairs in the middle of the long hallway, followed by Elena. She ran halfway with Ric. Another obstacle.</p>
<p>“Hello, Bonnie!” Another hug.</p>
<p>“Hi, Ric! Do you know anything about him?”</p>
<p>Alaric shook his head sadly, and Bonnie put her hand on his arm as a reassurance.</p>
<p>“I'll find him! I promise!”</p>
<p>"I called Matt," Caroline said from the bottom of the stairs. “He didn't find any clues either. He's already issued a roundabout. He couldn't just disappear from the surface of the planet.”</p>
<p>Alaric also seemed troubled. It’s not enough to have to deal with job interviews and new students who aren’t by the way problematic supernatural creatures, now even their best friend disappears. The headmistress of the school stepped down, probably tasting the wonderful wine stock in the Salvatore cellar, while Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie headed up toward the older Salvatore’s bedroom. Interestingly, the witch slept countless times in the exact replica of this room when she was stuck on May 10, 1994, but very rarely put her foot here in the real world. This was the territory of Damon Salvatore. Entry is only allowed for light snacks and girlfriends. Bonnie didn’t fit into either category.</p>
<p>“What could have happened?” Elena's whining was already annoying.</p>
<p>“I don't know, I'm trying to find out. Before I left, I cast a protective spell on Damon that connects him to me. So wherever he is, I know about it.”</p>
<p>“This is interesting.” Elena shrugged. "Still, what was between you two while I slept?"</p>
<p>Bonnie was just looking in the closet for something really personal. When the question came out of Elena's mouth, she became very angry. Caroline glared at the two of them in alarm. The witch seemed to explode right away.</p>
<p>“We fucked!” Bonnie finally replied in a mocking voice. “We fucked day and night and lying over the bloody corpses. Is that what you wanted to hear?”</p>
<p>“What happened to you, Bonnie? Elena watched her desperately.</p>
<p>"My best friend has disappeared with the cure to the vampirism in his body. If you don’t understand what that means, you’re more stupid than I thought.”</p>
<p>The words burst out of her unstoppably. Suppressed anger and bitterness. That's not how she wanted to meet Elena. Somewhere she knew that her childhood friend couldn't do about the horrors that had happened to her, but she couldn't stay calm anymore. Elena had everything to do with her loss, as she is the doppelganger. Everything revolves around her. But Bonnie was suddenly very fed up with it. Elena just yawned and wrapped her arms tightly around her belly. She stood there in the middle of the room like a bunch of smashes.</p>
<p>“I just don't understand why you're mad at me. Did I do something wrong?”</p>
<p>This time Caroline answered.</p>
<p>“You didn't do anything, Elena. That's the problem. You should have noticed sooner that the man you were sharing your life with was suddenly disappeared. Damon is now in constant danger. Vampires craving the cure are drooling waiting for the great love of your life to finally show up somewhere. So far, it’s only been protected by Bonnie’s disguise spell, and you’re asking what happened between them?”</p>
<p>Caroline also looked at the Gilbert girl with piercing eyes and wasn't finished yet.<br/>
“You're just standing here and doing nothing. You have been crying and wailing since you arrived. But you no longer have knights beside you to serve your needs. Damon is now just a human. He can’t always be by your side to protect you heroically.”</p>
<p>However, Elena was already angry about this.</p>
<p>“Thanks a lot. My boyfriend is gone and you blame me for it! Well, let me tell you, this isn't the first time Damon has stayed out for the night.”</p>
<p>Caroline laughed mockingly.</p>
<p>“Come on, Elena! What do you know about what Damon spends his days on? Anyway, when he misses out, he always calls you!”</p>
<p>“I can't do about it either!”</p>
<p>“None of us claimed that! "Bonnie finally found what she was looking for. The letter Damon wrote to her. They were never unpacked as they knew its contents. This calmed her down a bit. "It's just a bad thing to assume something about us that none of us would do to you. I would never have betrayed you that way.”</p>
<p>Elena smoothed her hair back nervously.</p>
<p>“Still, what should I have assumed? The diaries you wrote to me are just full of how heroically you protected the city and how he saved your life over and over again. I saw how close you got to each other. He calls you every day! And now you're acting like a crazy bitch.”</p>
<p>Bonnie pressed her lips into a thin line and crumpled the envelope in her hand. She really didn’t have time for that conversation now, and it seemed pointless to her. The magic tingled at the end of her fingers; she really wanted to throw Elena against the wall.</p>
<p>“Think what you want! I now have to find my friend, who is hopefully still alive.”</p>
<p>Bonnie stormed out of the room, down the stairs, and then went to the kitchen for candles. In the living room in front of the fireplace, she prepared the ingredients needed for the locator spell. Personal object (the letter), a car map, a pair of strands of candles and their own blood. Damon has no living relatives left, but thanks to the tiding spell, her blood does the work at the moment. She spread out the map on which the United States was on it, with a detailed road network. She dripped her blood into the middle of the map and then began to chant. At first only softly, then louder.</p>
<p><i>“Phesmatos tribum nas ex veras sequitas sanguinem.</i>” Again and again.</p>
<p>The drop of blood shifted and headed for Mystic Falls. Meanwhile, Bonnie saw strange flashes in her head. Damon was at the Salvatore School, in the lounge. He talked to Rick and Jo…? It just seemed pointless. She continued to chant, followed by another flash. Damon hugged someone. Bonnie didn't recognize her face. She was tall, her pretty, medium-blond hair reaching to her shoulders. She smiled kindly and said something. She spoke with a strong British accent. It made no sense. The drop of blood stood on Mystic Falls.</p>
<p>The witch turned over the unfolded sheet, which had a detailed drawing of the city on the other side. There, too, she dripped from her blood and held Damon's letter tightly. The blood started again and it didn't go any further than the Salvatore crypt. Bonnie opened her eyes. She could feel the warm tears as they wanted to pout, but she held back the crying. She sucked in air sharply through her nose, thus fighting the urge to sob. Sadness and despair lead nowhere. Damon isn't dead yet. She was sure she would feel it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The man, whom at the dawn of their acquaintance she could not even bear the sight, became the person closest to her. She didn't even love Caroline as much as Damon. She trusted him more than anyone else. Once she finds him, she won’t give up on their friendship. Especially not for Elena's sake.</p>
<p>She was still kneeling on the floor when Caroline and Elena finally came downstairs. The blonde vampire might have said something to the Gilbert girl as their brunette friend walked there to the couch with her eyes downcast. She didn't seem to dare to say a word to Bonnie. In contrast, Caroline knelt beside the witch and stroked her back. She hoped this would calm her down. Well, it didn't work. Bonnie sent a fake smile to Caroline, then blew out the candles, finally stood up and walked in front of Elena.</p>
<p>She knew she was treating her harshly. She was also aware that Elena could not do about Damon's disappearance. She felt guilty for scolding the girl so badly, but she was nervous and very worried. Now she sat down next to Elena and stroked her arm.</p>
<p>“Please don’t be mad at me! I didn't want to be such a jerk. I'm just very worried.”</p>
<p>She only capable for this short apologize. She didn't want to explain anymore. Elena raised her big brown eyes.</p>
<p>“It's okay, Bonnie!” She said kindly. “I'm worried too. I just didn't understand what this big fuss was about. Damon has been missing out many nights lately. He usually works, but sometimes it happens that he sleeps here in his old bedroom.”</p>
<p>Bonnie knew that, too. From this, he concluded that the relationship of the “dream couple” cannot be just cloudless.</p>
<p>“I didn't even know about the spell.”</p>
<p>This, in turn, surprised the witch.</p>
<p>“Didn't Damon talk about it?”</p>
<p>Elena snorted mockingly.</p>
<p>“No. Why would he say that? Sometimes I feel like I don’t know him anymore. I didn't fell in love with this man.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bonnie pursed her lips, then exchanged a significant look with Caroline.</p>
<p>“Well, you really didn't fall in love with this man. You fell in love with a selfish, impatient, suddenly angry, obsessed vampire with anger management problems. Now that he's human, his emotions aren't heightened, are they?”</p>
<p>The witch tilted her head to the side. She began to get angry at Elena again, but this time she didn't understand where this anger come at the girl.</p>
<p>"Damon mourns, as do we all," Caroline said softly. “That's what I was trying to make you understand on the upstairs.”</p>
<p>Caroline just stared at the loud bouncing fire in the fireplace. She didn't even look at them as she spoke. The skirt of her light, cheerful pastel-colored summer dress spread across the floor. Sadness flooded Bonnie's soul as she watched the always optimistic, cheerful Caroline kneel under the weight of her saddest memory.</p>
<p>“We lost Stefan. We no longer want to put Damon’s name on our list of lost loved ones.”</p>
<p>Since Elena didn't know what to answer, that was Bonnie's final word. She got up from the couch, smoothed her clothes, then grabbed her bag and headed for the front door.</p>
<p>“I haven't given up hope yet. The locator spell led me to the crypt. There must be something there. Maybe traces of a spell. Whatever it is, I'll find it.</p>
<p>Caroline and Elena nodded as if to tell to ‘bring him back to us’, and Bonnie wouldn't stop until she succeeded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She hadn't even crossed the threshold of the Salvatore family crypt, her skin already tingling. She was sure they had done magic here, not so long ago. She saw no candles, no blood, and fortunately no corpse. This reassured her somewhat. If they wanted to see Damon dead, they could have killed him with ease, even here. She cast a spell too. She tried reveal hidden things.</p>
<p>Nothing happened at first. The crypt was illuminated only by the light of the crescent moon. But then… Bonnie sensed something faintly. Her spine began to tingle, her skin vibrated, and then an unknown force pulled her toward the entrance. Just in front of the gate, something roughly human-sized, shimmering in bluish light, in the shape of an egg floated in front of her. It was as if a tear had formed in the air. It was like a mirror in which you see not yourself, but a swirling vortex. Bonnie was attracted to it by elemental force. Almost in a trance, she stepped closer and closer to it, then reached into the gap what suddenly yanked her.</p>
<p>She falls. At least that was the feeling. When the fall stopped, she landed on hard ground. It didn't hurt much, but she'd rather have fallen for something soft. When she opened her eyes and looked around, she was disappointed to find that she was still in the Salvatore crypt, surrounded by the dead relatives of Stefan and Damon, most of whom had been killed by the brothers. She got up from the ground with great difficulty and dusted off her clothes. The first thing that stood out to her was the sunlight filtering through the inlaid windows of the crypt mosaic. Either she was knocked out for a very long time or she was hallucinating. None promised anything good. Then she heard voices. Familiar sounds. Her own and Kai's. She couldn’t figure out what they were talking about, but the tone of their voices testified to cheerfulness. Bonnie just didn't want to believe it. Still chilling, she turned toward the entrance. Her beautiful green eyes grew to the size of a saucer as she saw herself walking arm-in-arm toward, with Kai Parker on her side. And that self was pregnant. As they got closer and were only a few steps apart, the pregnant self's face brightened.</p>
<p>“Oh! Well, that's a really good news. The other Bonnie Bennett has arrived too!”</p>
<p>Bonnie fainted.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It was a long chapter. I like to do my works in that way. Sometimes i want to write so many things at the same time that i feel 10k words aren't enought. But i try to hold this term. The next chapter will arrive in a month. I will try hard. </p>
<p>Anyway, the most important thing: How do you like it? What was your best part? I would like to know! And i love you my dearest readers, so leeve me kudos or comment me i will happy: ))) And of course have a nice read:))</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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